


The Parting Glass

by bunnymaccool



Category: The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, But this whole thing is in his POV, Coyote as a spirit, Death as that damned owl, Faraday as a ghost, Ghosts, M/M, Supernatural Elements, Well... Faraday doesn't live, being dead can be boring, so technically everyone lives, sorry Goody, spiritual elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-07 06:10:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 42,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18404726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunnymaccool/pseuds/bunnymaccool
Summary: Joshua Faraday's final ride is legendary. Epic. Damn near heroic, he'd like you to know. Going out in a blaze of glory. Saving a whole town of innocents, not to mention his traveling companions. (Who are not so innocent.) A mighty death knell to ring out over the West, echoing his name and his sacrifice, his final deed to all who would hear. Yes. Awesome.That is, until he regains consciousness standing over his own body as some sort of damned spirit. Jesus wept.Now the only one who can see and hear him is Red Harvest. The least conversational person in the entire group. And his ridiculous horse Wild Jack, of course. He's seeing dead people ... well.. OTHER dead people. Creepy ones that seem to be after him. There's a coyote that's NOT a coyote. And owl that MAY be Death. (And very angry with him.) Spirit Lights that want to boss him around. Matthew Cullen. Teddy Q weepin' like a widowed bride. And apparently ... apparently ... a scruffy Mexican outlaw that had much different feelings toward Faraday than he ever imagined.Really. What the hell?





	The Parting Glass

**Author's Note:**

> This fic has a very dear place in my heart. Even though it is also so, so painful. I was excited to take part in the Big Bang, got paired with an AMAZING artist! (The fabulous whereverigobillygoes) Was hella inspired by this great, sad song and took off like a rocket! On course to end on time and everything! And then my Dad got very sick. And then he struggled for 8 weeks to stay here with us. And then he lost that battle. This is actually very hard for me to post. I can't stop tearing up. T__T
> 
> In this really strange twist of fate, one of the last good memories I have with my Dad (the last time I visited before he was hospitalized)... I bought him a copy of Mag7 and we watched it together. So I was never going to give up on this fic... it obviously just took FAR longer than was expected, and I can't thank the mods and my artist enough for being so understanding and supportive and encouraging. There's a lot of blood, sweat and HOLY SHIT so many tears between the paragraphs of this story. I really hope anyone that gives it a read, loves it as much as I do. <3
> 
> As always, a MASSIVE thank you to my Beta reader, cheerleader, best friend and fandom soulmate [kay_cricketed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kay_cricketed)... couldn't have done it without you!! <3 <3 <3
> 
> And OF COURSE thank you so much to [whereverigobillygoes](https://whereverigobillygoes.tumblr.com/) who did the artwork. (Now Added!) You are so talented and amazing. And I legit squealed out loud the first time I saw it. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
> 
> WARNINGS: Faraday uses some terms and descriptions that a modern day politically correct person would definitely NOT. But it's Faraday... and that's just... how he talks. Apologies for any offenses.

Joshua Faraday supposed it wasn’t often that one regained consciousness only to find oneself currently standing over your own dead, still slightly smoking, body. _Well, what was left of it, anyway._ The last thing he could remember was the concussive force of the explosion hitting him and scorching heat and pain splintering across his skin. _Lots of damn pain._ And then nothing. Tendrils of smoke were lazily curling up from the singed edges of his body’s clothes. Most of the skin around his chest was charred and dark. He was _literally_ staring down at his own damn crispy corpse on the ground before him. 

“Well… shit.”

Faraday tried to kick at his corpse, but his leg glided effortlessly through the remains like it was made of nothing more substantial than clouds. He brought his hands up near his face to look at them, and realized that he was currently a hazy sort of transparent. _Jesus wept._

“Are you meanin’ to tell me that I am some sort of damned ghost?” 

He dropped his hands back to his sides and turned in a slow circle, taking in the field around him. The gatling gun was in pieces in the middle of a scar of black earth. There were other bodies around, but none were moving. _There weren’t any other damned ghosts standing near their earthly remains gaping like a fool, either._ Seemed it was just Faraday. _What the hell?_

“What is this? Where’s my angels reachin’ down to carry me to my eternal home, huh?”

A thundering of hooves from the direction of the town drew his attention, and he turned his head to find Vasquez riding towards him at breakneck speed, shouting that damned nickname he always used for Joshua. 

“GUERO! GUERO!”

Faraday propped his hands on his hips and watched as the Mexican outlaw pulled his horse up sharply and practically fell out of the saddle toward the body on the ground. 

“Oh man, Vasquez… you should probably keep back. There’s bits of me… everywhere really. My _internals_ are currently _externals_.” 

Obviously, the other man didn’t hear him and dropped to his knees at the side of Faraday’s body. His hands hovered over, as if afraid to touch, and Joshua really didn’t blame him. He was a horrifying mess. 

“I gotta be honest, Vas… I have seen better days. Mark this down as a sad day for the women of the West. They will have to continue on without the comfort of my handsome visage.”

Vasquez gently placed a hand against the side of the corpse’s face and Faraday recoiled. 

“Gross, Vasquez! I am covered with exploded me! I’m pretty sure I have soiled myself! And you’re just kneeling there… touching… it… _me_!” 

The outlaw’s hand fell away and he slumped to the ground with a bowed head. Faraday squatted on the other side of his own corpse and attempted to meet the other man’s gaze. He was surprised to see a tear tracking its way down the Mexican’s dirty face. When Vasquez spoke again, his voice was a soft rumbling mumble. 

“Por qué hiciste esto, cabrón?” [1]

Faraday groaned. 

“Oh come on, you still gonna speak that Mexican shit to me when I’m dead? I don’t understand you, Vasquez! Can you at least have the decency to speak English over my rapidly cooling body!?”

Joshua’s voice had risen progressively louder until he was shouting across the wide field surrounding them. He found himself heaving deep panicky breaths, even though he knew... HE KNEW… that he wasn’t actually breathing. His heart wasn’t actually beating, no matter that he felt as though he was having a heart attack. He screamed words of rage when he realized that he was angry. _He was so fucking angry._

“This is horseshit! THIS IS COMPLETE HORSESHIT!!! What the hell am I doing here, huh? At best I was hoping for sweet oblivion! At worst… maybe burning in the pits of Hell? But just standing over my own dead body? What the hell is that? What am I supposed to do here?” 

Faraday stomped his foot and growled a string of curses into the air, fully acknowledging that he was having a fit like a child, but unable or unwilling to stop himself. He figured he was damn well allowed after blowing himself to smithereens for the sake of a town of innocent, god-fearing folk. Vasquez let out a deep sigh before he pushed himself to his feet. He glanced around until he spotted a group of riderless horses milling about nearby and then took off walking toward them. Faraday sank down to sit on the ground next to… himself. He crossed his legs beneath him, propped his elbows on his knees, and plopped his chin into his hands. 

“What're ya doin’, ya damn Mexican?”

Vasquez snagged the reins of a large bay mare and liberated the rolled-up blanket from the pack hanging off the saddle. He brought both horse and cloth back with him to Faraday’s body. The gambler kept silent vigil as he watched Vasquez wrap his body in the blanket and then grunt with effort to lift him from the ground and lay him across the saddle of the bay. 

“Come on, Vasquez. Ain’t enough left of me to bother with that shit. Just dig a hole and tip me in. Save yourself the trouble.”

Naturally the other man didn’t listen to him, and Faraday watched him mount his own steed, still holding tightly to the reins on the bay. 

“Come on, guerito.”

Faraday sighed in resignation and pushed himself to his feet. 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, you sentimental bastard.”

And so, he found himself walking alongside his dead body as Vasquez led both horses back to Rose Creek at a slow walk. When they were nearing the edges of the town, Sam Chisolm came galloping up out of nowhere on his giant black gelding. He didn’t even open his mouth to speak, only glanced once at Vasquez, and then back to the wrapped body laying across the saddle of the bay. The leader of their little band sighed heavily and turned his horse to walk beside Vasquez. He glanced back one more time toward Faraday’s body, then shook his head and turned forward again. 

“Damn.”

Vasquez gave a soft grunt of acknowledgement as they made their way slowly into town. The first thing Joshua saw as they turned down the main street was giant Jack Horne standing in the middle of the road fussing about something. He had an arrow through his hand, one in each shoulder, and one sticking out from his calf… but they didn’t even seem to faze him. Red Harvest was hovering around behind him, as if he desperately wanted to mother-hen the old bear, but was reluctant to give away the fact that he had emotions. Faraday cackled at the pair, hooting at the picture they made. 

Almost as if he heard him, Red glanced at their little procession and froze for a second, then tapped Horne on the back once, pointing their direction. The old tracker’s gaze followed the motion, and then his whole body visibly slumped. He turned toward them as Sam and Vasquez halted their horses a couple paces away. Faraday realized that the town doctor had been the unfortunate subject of Horne’s previous ire. Apparently the man had been trying to get Jack to head to the infirmary. _God forbid._ The tracker’s funny, soft voice echoed out on the street. 

“He didn’t make it, then.”

Everything went quiet around them. Faraday walked forward, past their horses, and was fairly surprised to see that nearly the whole town was standing in the street. Right past Horne and Red Harvest stood Billy, who was supporting a wobbling Goodnight. Emma Cullen was holding up Teddy Q and both appeared to be on the edge of collapse. Faraday groaned and kicked at the dirt. _Which didn’t move at all, obviously, but he didn’t give a damn._

“Oh come on! Are you telling me I’m the only poor sucker in our company that bought it?”

Once again, Red made an abortive gesture that didn’t match with the people around him. Joshua narrowed his gaze at the Comanche, but didn’t say anything further. Horne limped over to the bay carrying Faraday’s body and placed a hand against the blanket-wrapped lump that was, hopefully, Joshua’s head. 

“A brave and selfless act of sacrifice. He will be welcomed with much fanfare in the home of our Father in Heaven.”

Faraday snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. 

“Don’t be so sure, you old coot.”

From nowhere, the old town preacher came up to stand near the horses and caught Chisolm’s attention. 

“We can lay your man in the church for now, Marshal. Until we can give him and the others a proper burial.” 

Sam nodded and motioned Vasquez to head on to the church. When his body moved slowly away from him, Faraday’s gaze followed it for a moment, before he returned his attention to the group around him. Sam settled his hands against the saddle horn and cleared his throat softly, catching the immediate attention of the remainder of their little band. 

“Horne, Goody… get yourselves to the infirmary. Nothing else you can do right now. Red Harvest… please go help Vasquez.”

Without so much as a tweet of argument, the others did exactly as they were told and Joshua whistled low. It never ceased to amaze him the power they had all given over willingly to Chisolm. The man had earned their respect and loyalty so quickly that it made him wonder if they had all been wandering through life blindly… just waiting for someone to tell them what to do. With a chuckle, Faraday ignored the rest of the directions Sam started handing out, to follow Red toward the church. 

He glanced around as he went, taking in the death and destruction that littered Rose Creek with more horror than he’d ever seen before. But the people all looked relieved. And happy. 

When he finally ambled up to the church, there were several men gathered about. They seemed to be separating the townsfolk from Bogue’s men. The bodies of the townsfolk were being gently carried into the church, while Bogue’s men were being tossed on a large pile in the street. Faraday squinted at the gruesome sight, trying to pick out which body might belong to the man himself. _Not that he rightly cared._

“Careful. Careful!”

Vasquez’s raised voice snagged his attention away from the pile of corpses and Faraday trotted into the church with a burst of speed. Red and Vas were struggling with Faraday’s wrapped body, trying to place it across a church pew as carefully as possible. They finally got him stretched out, and the Mexican outlaw began to fastidiously work at the blanket to make sure the body was covered properly. Joshua stepped up beside him and sighed. 

“Stop nit-pickin’ me, ya damn bastard. Get outta here and help the others. Stop bein’ so maudlin.”

“Que En Paz Descanse, guero. You have earned it.” [2]

Vasquez reached forward to rest a hand gently against the blanket-covered plane of Faraday’s chest. The other man took a deep breath, that sounded a little shaky to Joshua’s ears, but then was out of the church faster than a fox caught in the hen house. Faraday watched him go, crossed his arms over his chest. 

“What the hell has gotten into him?”

When he turned back to Red Harvest, the younger man was staring right into Faraday’s eyes and caused him to startle in surprise. 

“CHRIST! Red? Can you see me?”

The Comanche only turned and walked away in response to his question… although it appeared as if the corner of his mouth upticked in a very slight smile. Faraday followed him out the door. 

“Red! Red! Ya damn Indian! Can you see me? Can you hear me?”

Faraday stumbled out after the younger man, his body in the church completely forgotten. Red moved like lightning and in only a few quick steps had flipped himself up onto the bay mare that carried Joshua’s body, and was trotting away at a speed he would be completely unable to keep up with on foot. 

“You wily little shit.”

Joshua stopped in the middle of the street, once again sweeping his gaze around the town. More people were beginning to mill about, helping remove bodies, or weeping openly over a loved one. He didn’t see anyone he recognized, so figured he’d head off toward the saloon to hunt down Chisolm or Vasquez. Faraday had only taken a couple steps when a deep rumbling noise froze him in his tracks. It was a loud, terrifying sound, much like a stampede. The ground beneath his feet had begun to vibrate and shift. 

Faraday shrieked, _though he would never admit it to company_ , and spun in a circle to try and determine what new catastrophe was about to unleash itself on Rose Creek… but… no one around him was reacting to the sound at all. 

“What in the hell?”

The noise grew louder and louder; until it felt as though his head was rattling around on his shoulders, and a stab of pain lanced through his brain like a railway spike. 

“SHIT!”

He crouched down to the ground and wrapped his hands around his ears defensively, but still… none of the living people in his eyesight showed the slightest alarm, or recognition of the horrible noise. The very earth under his feet felt as if it was a mutt shaking vigorously to expel him off its skin like a damned flea. The sound and pain had become so unbearable that he could only squeeze his eyes closed and scream out in fear and frustration. 

There was a strange tugging sensation behind his navel and the odd feeling of butterflies swooping in his belly… and then everything was quiet and still. Faraday cautiously straightened from his defensive crouch, and was shocked to find himself standing in the saloon, only feet away from a sullen Vasquez. The man in question was leaning back in a chair, half empty bottle of whisky in one hand and… one of Faraday’s own playing cards twirling around in the other. Joshua turned a quick circle to take in the saloon, but Vasquez appeared to be alone for the moment. Not that it explained how in the hell Joshua got there. 

“Somethin’ really weird just happened, Vasquez.” 

Faraday took a couple steps closer to the table where the outlaw was sitting, and got a better look at the card in the man’s hand. It was a slightly singed and bloody King of Hearts. The Mexican was glaring at the damn thing with an unwavering gaze. Every few seconds he would bring the bottle of whisky to his lips, but his eyes never left the card. 

“What’re you on about, man? Did you snag that offa my damn body, or what?”

Vasquez finally closed his eyes and heaved a weighty sigh into the quiet of the saloon. His voice that followed was broken and roughened. If Joshua hadn’t known better, he would assume the cause of which was a deep sorrow. 

“Lo siento, guero.” [3]

That one, Faraday knew. 

“Why the hell’re you apologizin’ for, ya damn bastard? You didn’t blow me up, I took care of that just fine on my own.”

Of course, the other man couldn’t hear him, and continued to speak. 

“I should not have said that. ‘Ándale, guero.’ I should not have said. I say go, and you go straight to your death. Soy idiota.” [4]

Faraday gaped openly at the other man for a second. Of all the stupid, ridiculous bullshit he’d ever heard… Joshua opened his mouth to rail at Vasquez, when the other man stopped him in his tracks. The outlaw had brought the card up to his lips and was gently kissing its worn surface. His eyes were closed, squeezed shut as if he was in pain. 

“What? … Vasquez… what?”

The other man whispered words into the card...

“Buenas noches, cariño.” [5]

… and then tucked it tightly into the breast pocket of his vest. Faraday’s head spun in confusion. 

“Vas? What?”

The outlaw rose from the table, leaving an empty bottle behind, and ambled slowly out of the saloon. Joshua watched him go, but felt frozen to the spot. There was obviously something very important that he had completely missed these last days travelling with his new companions. 

“Did you not know?”

Joshua whipped around to find Red Harvest crouched up on the landing of the second floor above. The younger man’s head tilted in what seemed to be genuine curiosity. 

“What?”

Red motioned with his hand to indicate the seat that Vasquez had recently vacated. 

“You did not know?”

Having completely forgotten the fact that he was currently DEAD and the damn fool Indian shouldn’t have been able to see and hear him, Faraday sputtered out a fast, frantic, response. 

“NO! Of course I didn’t! I don’t… He doesn’t…” 

He went silent, blinking repeatedly for a moment, knees weak like they were struggling to support him. Red observed him in silence for a few seconds before he rose to his feet and made his way down the stairs to stand before Joshua. 

“We all knew. We watched him watch you. Wondered if you would ever notice.”

Faraday grunted and crossed his arms over his chest. 

“No one felt the need to clue me in?”

Red hummed softly before he turned his head and gave Faraday a highly judgemental side-eye. 

“You did not seem the type to be amenable to such things. We were protecting him from you, I think.”

 _Huh. Well that was a damn interesting way of looking at the whole situation._ Finally it snapped to Faraday’s attention that he was having an honest to God-damned conversation with Red Harvest. He lifted his hands toward the younger man’s shoulders, but they passed through him like fog. Red shivered slightly, but did not back away from the attempted touch. A stone settled itself in Joshua’s belly. 

“Red. I’m… I shouldn’t be here.” 

Red Harvest’s eyes went steely and flint-sharp. 

“Who says you should not?”

Faraday sighed. 

“I am deceased, kid, it is unnatural that I am walking around like this. I don’t see any other spooks hangin’ about. Just me. Heaven or Hell…I shoulda ended up somewhere besides here… havin’ to witness…”

His words trailed off as his eyes tracked over to the table where Vasquez’s bottle still stood, empty and alone.

“... I should be sleepin’ my eternal rest.”

Red snorted. 

“White man’s religions. White man’s thoughts. You are on land much, much older than your Bible’s God and his Heaven and Hell. The land knows what occurs upon it. It knows what is right… and what is wrong. Perhaps this is its reward to you.”

Joshua had the urge to pull out his own hair. Or maybe Red’s. _That would probably be more satisfying._

“Reward? Red… I. Am. DEAD! And now I’m stuck floating around watching myself decompose? And my… my… _people_... go on without me? How is that a reward?”

The younger man tilted his head slightly to consider Faraday. 

“Because you _are_ still _with_ us.”

Faraday waited for a moment to see how Red planned to follow up that statement, but nothing else was apparently forthcoming from the younger man, so Joshua groaned and dropped his head back to stare at the ceiling. 

“Fine. Okay. Will you at least tell the others that I’m here?”

There was no immediate response, Joshua tilted his head forward and found himself alone. 

“That sneaky little devil.”

Nothing else held him to the saloon, so he wandered back outside to the main street. It was darker than he expected it to be, the sun long set, and a trail of people were all heading toward the church with flickering candles cupped in their hands. The lumbering shape of Horne caught his gaze, so Faraday decided to head over to follow the man. The big bear was limping and a little out of breath, but he continued down the street with the rest of the townspeople. It was obviously a memorial ceremony for those lost, and for a moment Joshua considered not going, but then the tall form of a certain Mexican outlaw passed by and Faraday quickened his pace to catch up. 

“You don’t gotta come to this shindig, yanno, Vas. I won’t hold it against ya. Preacher’s probably gonna speak a lotta sad shit, and widows an’ kids will be cryin’. I’d’ve just stayed at the saloon and drank. Better memorial for ME, anyway.”

They reached the church as his words fell away, and Faraday felt a shiver pass through him when he walked through the doors. The dead were laid out in organized rows all over the floor, each with their own mourners stood nearby, lost in grief. He hadn’t noticed before, but Joshua’s body was the only one placed, almost reverently, on one of the few remaining pews. It was towards the front of the room, near the pulpit, as if in a place of honor. He felt distinctly uncomfortable about that fact. 

Chisolm was already standing there when Vasquez and Faraday approached. The older man turned and gave Vasquez a distinctly concerned look. _Huh_. J _oshua must have REALLY not been paying attention._ They didn’t speak. The whole of the congregation was deathly silent. Faraday nervously chewed on his fingernails as he watched the town slowly pile into the small building. Billy arrived, helping Goodnight, whose leg was wrapped nearly from ankle to ass with bandage. Horne stumbled in after, with Red Harvest shadowing him like a silent sentinel. The Comanche gave a small nod of acknowledgement toward Faraday, who responded by giving the kid the finger. Emma Cullen and Teddy Q arrived last, the first helping the latter hobble in on his injured leg. 

The group of them surrounded Faraday’s body and he couldn’t stop himself glancing from face to face. In all his days, he’d never considered there might be this many people standing at what was essentially his funeral. He had always figured he would be tossed in a box and buried in the ground with very little fanfare. The old preacher finally stepped up to the pulpit and cleared his throat. 

“All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me; and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." [6]

The sound of muffled crying began to fill the tiny room and Faraday’s feeling of discomfort continued. Almost subconsciously, he moved closer to the only person he knew could actually see him. Red spared him a quick glance, and then pointedly flicked his eyes toward Vasquez. Joshua turned toward the outlaw, and damned if he didn’t look absolutely wretched. Not even thinking of why he did it, Faraday shifted close up to the other man's back and tried to place a hand on his shoulder. As usual, it went right through flesh and bone, so he pulled it back to only hover above, and give the illusion _(if only to himself)_ that he was comforting the other man. Vasquez shivered a little, but then took a deep breath and settled himself. Faraday tuned back in to the preacher’s voice. 

“... and lastly we remember Joshua Faraday, who bravely gave his life for a cause that was not his own. He rode into Rose Creek as a stranger, but will remain here with us as a brother and a son. He sacrificed his own life to save countless others. His name will never be forgotten in Rose Creek.” 

The preacher moved back from the pulpit and motioned to a young woman standing off to the side. She stepped up to stand before everyone, took a deep breath, and began to sing. 

Of all the money that e'er I had

I spent it in good company

And all the harm I've e’er done

Alas it was to none but me

And all I've done for want of wit

To mem'ry now I can't recall

So fill to me the parting glass

Good night and joy be to you all

So fill to me the parting glass

And drink a health whate’er befall,

And gently rise and softly call

Good night and joy be to you all

Of all the comrades that e'er I had

They're sorry for my going away

And all the sweethearts that e'er I had

They'd wish me one more day to stay

But since it fell unto my lot

That I should rise and you should not

I gently rise and softly call

Good night and joy be to you all

Good night and joy be to you all [7]

Joshua recognized the song instantly. It was one that his mother would sing incessantly in the evenings when he was very young. Always without reason. Always without a care that her voice could startle cockroaches out of hiding. He’d grown up with the song, and would oftentimes catch himself humming it under his breath. ( _Singing it, if he was inebriated enough, to be perfectly honest._ ) So this was either the largest of coincidences… or… someone in the room had heard him at some point. Heard. Recognized. Asked the preacher to have someone sing it. _That was… wow… that was…_ Joshua wasn’t even sure what to think of it.

 

Vasquez suddenly spun in place and walked right through Faraday on his way toward the door. He didn’t make a sound, didn’t disturb any of the other mourners, but he was out the door faster than a blink and it left Joshua stunned for a second. A movement caught his eye, and Red Harvest was subtling motioning with his hand for Faraday to follow the Mexican. 

“Aw, dammit… what the hell am I supposed to do? It’s not like I can comfort him or anything.”

He was already jogging out the door as he finished that sentence though, and caught sight of Vasquez storming down the street toward the stables. 

“What the hell?”

Vasquez was on a tear, and made it to the stables long before Faraday was able to catch him up. When he finally stepped into the dark building, he was nearly shocked right back out with the sight that he found. Vasquez was resting his forehead against Wild Jack’s own and hugging the stallion’s massive head tight to him. The horse wasn’t even trying to pull away, instead he calmly allowed Vasquez to do what he wanted. Jack’s ear swiveled in Faraday’s direction, but he didn’t move. 

“Well, I’ll be damned.”

Leave it to his crazy horse to provide the comfort that Joshua couldn’t at the moment. 

“Lo siento. Lo siento, cariño. I could not stay there. Not one more second. I am sure you would have hated it, anyway.”

Faraday laughed a little manically before he stepped up right next to the other man and traced his fingers along the back of the outlaw’s neck. 

“You’re damned right about that, amigo.”

Wild Jack again swiveled his ear toward Faraday’s voice and he could tell the horse was watching him. Apparently animals and Indians were all that could make out ghosts around these parts. _Ridiculous_. 

“Heya, boy… be nice to Vasquez now. He’s bein’ an overly emotional fool tonight.”

The horse flicked his ear forward. He obviously recognized his master’s voice. Faraday stepped closer and raised a hand to run along Jack’s forehead where it rested against Vasquez’s. He couldn’t feel anything, obviously, it was more of a gesture than a touch… but Vasquez suddenly startled like he’d been shocked and swung his head violently around, eyes darting about as if searching for something. Vasquez, in turn, startled Faraday so much with his reaction that he nearly fell over backward. 

“Vas?”

The Mexican didn’t answer… only continued to glance around the stable with a confused frown on his lips. Eventually the other man mumbled something indistinguishable _(and not in English)_ under his breath, before he turned back to Wild Jack and patted him gently one more time on the cheek. When he turned to walk away, Faraday stepped up to his mad horse. 

“Hey there, you handsome devil.”

Wild Jack flicked his head back once and whickered loudly as if to agree. He stretched his neck forward to bump his muzzle against Faraday’s face, like he always did, but passed right through him instead… and Joshua felt an intense sense of loss. Jack tossed his head in aggravation, and attempted the affectionate action again, only to fail a second time. The stallion reared back and snorted loudly in what Faraday could only assume was betrayal or frustration. He sighed and took a step back. 

“Sorry, boy.”

There was a lead weight in his belly now. In the terms of his life, or more accurately… his death, Joshua Faraday realized that he had never really considered if he would be leaving anything behind that might not just be better off without him. But… Vasquez appeared to be suffering from his death. And the rest of the seven had all been there at his memorial looking sad, shedding tears as if they would genuinely miss his company. And now… poor Wild Jack. Temperamental beast didn’t even comprehend why Faraday couldn’t give him his usual pats of affection. 

“Well, this is a goddamned messed up situation. What am I supposed to do about this?”

He left the stable and found the town slowly dispersing from the service, candles casting eerie shadows on the storefronts of the main street. A glance to the saloon showed several people milling about inside, probably his people too, but he didn’t go in. Instead he slowly walked up the emptying street toward the half burned down church. There were no folk hanging around anymore, but a couple candles were still flickering up on the pulpit. Joshua walked slowly, almost fearfully if he was honest, up to the covered figure lying prone on the pew. 

There were several little paper flowers strewn over the blanket that covered his body. They all had barely legible children’s handwriting on the petals that read things like “thank you” and “rest in peace mister faraday.” A burning tightness hit his throat and he sucked in a quick breath that came back out as a strangled sob… but no sound echoed back to him in the empty building. The tread of a heavy boot made him turn to the doorway of the church. He could only watch as Sam Chisolm slowly made his way toward him in the flickering candlelight. 

Joshua quickly stepped to the side so as not to have the Marshall walk right through him. Chisolm moved up to the pew where Faraday’s body rested, slowly went down on one knee, then leaned forward to rest his arms on the edge nearest to the body’s head. 

“What’re ya doin’, Sam?”

The other man bowed his head and drew in a deep breath. 

“The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death. Amen.” [8]

A shiver passed through Faraday as the soft words petered off into silence, but he didn’t speak or respond. Chisolm had to be here alone for a reason, and Joshua decided he would respect the peace and silence that the older man obviously sought out at this late hour. 

“I feel the need to apologize, Faraday.”

Joshua crouched down beside Sam, so that even if he could not see him, they were still on a level with each other. 

“Even though I knew it was a worthwhile fight, I brought you here, and so your death is on me. It’s never easy… to cause the death of a good man… and I’m sure if you were here, you would probably advise me that I neither caused your death nor am I allowed to call you a good man. But you were. It was a very noble thing that you did. 

I wanted to let you know that young Teddy has promised to take care of your horse. He’ll be treated well. Vasquez is taking your guns. I’m not sure if he’s actually meaning to use them, but he insists that you wouldn’t want them buried with you in the ground to rust and rot.”

Faraday shrugged and conceded the point to Vasquez’s logic. That _would_ probably bother him, if he was honest. Good of the outlaw to be able to read him so well to correctly assume. After a moment of heavy silence, Chisolm continued. 

“We ride out as soon as Goodnight is able to manage it with that leg. We’re of a mind to stick together, the six of us, to see what other tasks we may accomplish. Although none of us might admit this out loud… I believe we are all feeling a mite protective of Vasquez at the moment as well. His mind isn’t in the right place. It wouldn’t do for him to survive a battle such as this, only to be taken down by the next Marshall to cross his path.”

Chisolm lifted a hand to run a finger along the petals of one of the paper flowers. Faraday watched in fascination. He had never known the man to say so many openly honest words in a row. He usually kept all of his thoughts and feelings so close to the chest. He wondered if Sam would be saying all these things if he knew that Joshua could actually hear them.

“Rest in Peace, son. And thank you for your sacrifice.”

Sam slowly stood and stepped away from the pew. His gaze held steadily on the barely defined features of the face beneath the shroud for several moments, before he turned away and strode out of the church. Faraday watched him go until he could no longer make out the details of the man in the fallen darkness. Then he slipped backward to fall upon his ass and curled his legs beneath him. He turned to his body and just stared at it. At a loss as to what he was supposed to do next, Joshua closed his eyes and rubbed his hands roughly over his face. 

When he opened his eyes again only moments later, sunlight was streaming through the empty windows and the preacher was puttering around behind him. Faraday startled out of his relaxed position with a loud curse. He couldn’t tell if he had lost hours somehow, or if maybe time just moved very differently for him now that he was dead. It was only when he turned around to see what the preacher was up to that Faraday realized… he _had_ lost time. He’d lost a _hell of a lot_ of time. All of the bodies in the church were gone, save for his. He stumbled awkwardly up to his feet in shock. 

“What in the hell?”

It should have taken several days for all the townsfolk to be buried. How had he not noticed that large a passage of time? He remembered Chisolm talking about riding out soon…

“Shit!”

… and pitched out of the church at an awkward run. He wasn’t ready for them to leave him behind yet. He wanted them to stay here and help him. Help him to move on, or leave his body behind, or _some damn infernal thing other than sit around the damn town that he died in and mope._ Faraday tore down the street as fast as he could toward the boarding house and the stables, took the corner at top speed and nearly ran right through the lot of them. 

The six were sitting astride their horses conversing with Emma Cullen in the middle of the street. When Faraday skid ungracefully to a stop before the group, Red Harvest’s eyes widened and he sat up a little higher on the back of his painted pony. Joshua ignored the conversation being held with the others and instead focused on the younger man. 

“Y’all are leavin’? Right now? For good?”

Red tilted his head forward in a barely perceptible nod, and Faraday stomped the ground and grabbed at his hair in a proper fit. 

“But I don’t… what I am supposed to do? Do I go with you? Is it possible? Am I even able to leave my body behind? I don’t… Red… I don’t…”

The last word came out as a half-choked sob, and then Red Harvest was nudging his horse into a slow walk toward Joshua. The conversation around them stopped, and Chisolm asked the younger man if he was in a rush to leave. With a soft, deadpan voice, Red simply nodded in the direction of the church and said, 

“I am going to say farewell to Faraday.”

Vasquez sucked in an audible breath, but none of the others moved or spoke, so Joshua trotted around the corner after Red. They ended up side by side, moving slowly right back toward the church Joshua had just sprinted away from. Red glanced back once quickly before he turned to face Faraday. 

“Where have you been? It has been days.”

Joshua shrugged his shoulders and scratched at his beard. 

“I don’t rightly know, Red. I lost time. One minute I was in the church after the service and the next it’s morning and you lot are in the street. Wasn’t any in between time for me.”

The younger man turned to stare at the church at the end of the street with a contemplative look on his face. He didn’t seem to have anything else to say, however. 

“What the hell am I supposed to do, Red?”

“I have no answers for you. You must find your own path.”

Faraday groaned and threw his hands up in frustration. 

“You said being with you lot was my reward! How am I supposed to stay with you? I ain’t gotta convenient GHOST horse… I don’t even gotta damn BODY!”

Red Harvest faced him once more and pulled his horse to a stop. They held gazes for several seconds of silence until the jingle of stirrups and tack drew their eyes to the other five slowly riding up behind them. Chisolm was giving Red a curious look as he moved to pass the Comanche. 

“I thought you were going to bid farewell to Faraday?”

Red swept his gaze toward Joshua, but didn’t pause for even a second, only continued his swivel forward and then set his horse into a slow walk. 

“I was.”

Sam lifted a single questioning eyebrow and gave the general area Joshua was standing a contemplative tilt of the head. 

“Huh.”

Chisolm didn’t slow the forward momentum of his massive black horse, and the rest Faraday’s friends passed before him like a procession. No one else looked his way, but they were moving slow enough that he could keep up with the group as they made their way out of town. When Red Harvest reached the church, he pulled his horse to a stop and stared up at the bell tower. One by one the rest did the same, until a lineup of horses and riders were silently standing sentinel in the street. Joshua moved to stand before them. 

“Guess this is goodbye, ya crazy lot.”

Obviously, Red Harvest was the only one who turned his eyes to Faraday and gave him a subtle nod. He said something in his native tongue that actually made Chisolm huff a small laugh. Goodnight turned to smile at the Marshall. 

“What did he say?”

Sam raised his gaze to the bell tower of the church once again, and then reached up to tip his hat in acknowledgement to the body being left behind inside. In one smooth motion he pulled his horse into action to head out of town and responded to the question asked. 

“He said ‘All who have died are equal. Even foolish drunkards’.” [9]

Goodnight chuckled softly before he tilted his own hat in respect and set his horse into motion to follow Chisolm. The others copied the action and began to drift out of town… until Vasquez was the last one still there. The outlaw wasn’t looking towards the bell tower as the others had done, instead his eyes were fixed firmly to the door of the church. As if he could actually see far enough inside the building to find the pew where Joshua’s body lay. 

Faraday stepped up beside Vasquez’s white mare, who flicked her ears at him and shifted sideways a step. Vasquez shushed her gently and patted at her neck, but his gaze never left the church. With a huff, Faraday crossed his arms over his chest and motioned with his head where the others were nearly out of sight. 

“Move your Mexican ass, Vas… you’re gonna get left behind.”

The outlaw stared silently for another minute more before he, too, tipped his hat and spun his horse toward the edge of town. 

“Ante el amor y la muerte, el coraje es inútil. Adios, guerito.” [10]

Then he spurred his mare into a run and left Faraday standing in a cloud of dust. The thundering of hooves receded into the distance. He watched as Vasquez rode away until he disappeared over the crest of the hills that had already hidden the rest of the group from sight. Faraday observed the rolling hills for several moments after, as well, as if he was waiting for a rider to turn right back around and return to him. 

“Fuck.”

Joshua spun quickly on his heel and stomped back to the church. He peered inside the doorway to watch the preacher putter around for a few moments. Then he turned away and slowly made his way down the main street of town. The sound of hammering drew him toward the undertakers, and for another few minutes Faraday stared at the man as he built his coffin. 

“This is a goddamn surreal situation.”

He moved on toward the saloon, stepped up onto the wooden porch and noted with some unease that his footsteps didn’t echo on the boards as they had when he was still living. The utter lack of noise and presence of his own body in death gave him the willies. A person apparently never noticed the ambient sounds that his own existence created around him until they had disappeared. Peeking in the windows of the establishment revealed that no one was currently partaking of Faraday’s favorite past time. He supposed there was a hell of a lot of work to be done restoring the town, and the survivors likely didn’t have time to rest on their laurels and enjoy a nice drink. 

Joshua heaved a great sigh and stepped back down into the street. He was still at a complete loss of what to do with himself. Once again he lamented that no heavenly light had seen fit to shine down upon him and lead him… somewhere. _Anywhere_. With another hefty groan, he ambled out of town and toward the field where the remainder of the gatling gun was still spread about. There was a massive black scar upon the earth where the explosion had marked the land. He wondered idly how long it would take for that manifestation of his final deed to be smothered away with green grass and wildflowers. 

A brown bloody smear marked where his body had lain in the grass some distance away from the burned land. Rather morbidly, Faraday found himself seated beside the place where he had died and silently stared back down the hill into Rose Creek. Every so often a figure would buzz about the town, working on something or other. He could often make out Emma Cullen’s fiery red hair near the school house. 

Something fluttered in the grass nearby and Faraday turned to see a tattered Jack of Spades toss about in the breeze. Without thinking about his ghostly nature, he moved to snag it and then cursed when it simply slipped through his fingers and tumbled further down the hill. It kept going, picking up speed as if it was late for something and it was necessary to step lively. With nothing better to do, Faraday hopped to his feet and followed the damn thing back in the direction of town. The card tossed like tumbleweed until it ended up smacking against the back of a building and falling still. When Joshua glanced up, he was surprised to find himself standing outside the stables. 

“Huh.”

Faraday had always been one of a curious and superstitious nature, so he immediately took off running to the front of the stable to check on Wild Jack. When he ducked in the door… he stopped short. Jack was standing there, fully bridled and saddled up, with the door to his stall wide open. Faraday spun himself in a circle… but there was no one else around. Jack stared straight at him and tossed his head as if he was impatient for waiting too long for his rider to show his face. Joshua shrugged his shoulders and huffed a soft laugh.

“Well, why the hell not?”

Moving as if he was still a living and solid body, Faraday strode across the stable and swung himself up into the saddle. Fully expecting to fall right through his horse and flat on his face… it was a damn shock to feel the barest hint of solidity and find himself sitting astride Jack… as if it were any other day. The reins were looped around the horn and his fingers passed through them. So… he was in the saddle… but it looked like this was Jack’s show now. Faraday squeezed with his knees ever so slightly, and like a shot Jack was tearing out of the building and up the street toward the church at the edge of town. 

“HELL YES!”

They streaked past Emma Cullen and Teddy Q, who both called the horse’s name and attempted to chase after. They streaked past the preacher and undertaker outside the church, with an empty coffin on a wagon and a covered body carefully being lowered inside. They streaked past the crest of a hill just outside town where several men were digging a grave on a swell of land with a prominent view of the town. They streaked across the plains until Faraday turned around in the saddle and Rose Creek was a mere speck on the horizon behind them. He burst into whoops and hollers of excitement and elation, surprised… and yet not… when he realized Jack was following in the trail of the six that had left before them. 

********************************************************************************************************

With no ability to control the horse’s speed or direction, Faraday left Jack to his own devices and simply enjoyed the ride. The speed of the hills as they flew past them. The sun and the clouds in the blue sky above him. The wind and the ground as it rushed beneath Jack’s feet. The thought of being dead was pushed far back into his mind as he reveled in barreling across the countryside at break-neck speed on the back of his completely insane steed. It seemed like no time at all until he spotted a group of riders ahead of them in the far off distance. Faraday whooped again as Wild Jack headed straight for them. 

“Yes! There they are, you crazy bastard! Go get em! Tell ‘em they’re shit for leavin’ us behind!”

Oftentimes in their acquaintance, Faraday had wondered if his horse could actually understand him, and _especially_ then… as Jack snorted and tossed his head as if to say _‘those fuckers’_ , then tucked his head low and practically one-horse-stampeded straight towards the heart of the group. When they were about fifty paces back, he could make out the six men pulling their own mounts to a stop and turning back to stare in shock at his approach. 

Faraday whooped loudly in glee as Wild Jack split the group into two. Chisolm’s black and Vasquez’s white mare both startled and jumped to the side as Jack tore between them, pulled up short suddenly, and then reared back on his hind legs. Faraday nearly fell right out of the damn saddle, since he was unable to grasp the reins, but he managed to cling on enough with his thighs that he kept his seat. The stallion landed back on all four hooves and proceeded to toss his head, snort loudly, and stomp at the ground. His rider could only laugh. 

“That’s right, boy, you tell them they ain’t allowed to abandon us.”

He glanced over to Red Harvest, and found one very amused young Comanche staring back at him. Before Joshua could say anything to the younger man, he was distracted by Vasquez… who had dismounted his own horse and was cautiously approaching Wild Jack. The outlaw was making soft cooing noises, obviously thinking the stallion had lost his marbles. Become as wild as his name implied. 

“Calmase, mi lindo… what has you so worked up, eh?” [11]

Wild Jack snorted at the man, then shoved his muzzle directly into Vasquez’s hand for a pet. Faraday glanced back over to Red, who arched an eyebrow in question. Joshua shrugged. 

“We didn’t wanna be left behind.”

Red surreptitiously motioned with his index finger toward his own body… where it was solidly resting on his mount. Silently asking for an explanation of the sudden ability for a ghost to ride in the saddle, Faraday supposed. So he answered with a shrug. 

“Hell if I know. Just tried it out… and it worked.”

The younger man nodded at his explanation, but then glanced down Faraday’s body towards his nether regions… and smirked. When Joshua looked down… Vasquez’s hand was _literally…_ inside his crotch. The outlaw was resting his hand on Jack’s saddle… right through Faraday. 

“WHOA!!!”

All of the horses startled at his loud outburst. Save for Chisolm’s black… that bastard had nerves of steel. Joshua supposed it would have to, given its master. The rest of the riders patted and shushed their mounts to settle them. Horne spun side to side in his saddle to take in the area and probably try to figure out what spooked them. Faraday still sat, openly gaping, at Vasquez’s hand resting inside his crotch. The outlaw had managed to calm Jack into a docile little kitten beneath him. 

“What are you doing so far from Rose Creek, mi lindo? Did you not want to stay with Teddy?”

Wild Jack huffed and tossed his head, which caused Faraday to smile again. 

“Of course he didn’t want to stay with Teddy! Why the hell would you leave us behind with a wet-behind-the-ears toddler like Teddy-fuckin-Q, Vasquez?”

Vasquez turned to Chisolm and the rest of the group. 

“Should we turn back? Return him to Rose Creek?”

Joshua screeched at him. 

“You better the hell not, you damned mustachioed nightmare!”

Red Harvest spoke up suddenly, causing all eyes to turn his direction. 

“No. He has his own mind. He goes where he wants to go.”

Goodnight snorted and Horne hummed thoughtfully… but Chisolm only nodded and kicked his horse back into a slow trot. 

“You heard the man. Wild Jack’s will be done.”

The others, minus Vasquez, all moved to follow Chisolm. The outlaw turned back to the stallion and ran his hand gently through Jack’s forelock. When he stepped back, and away from Faraday’s crotch, he snagged the reins. As he pulled himself up onto his white mare, Vasquez looped Jack’s reins around his own saddle horn. Joshua snorted. 

“Yeah, that’s not gonna keep.”

But when Vasquez kicked his mare into following the group, Wild Jack trailed along beside him, Faraday in tow. He settled in, more than happy to allow Vasquez and the horses to do all the directing for the time being. Content in the fact that at least he wasn’t cursed to wander the streets of Rose Creek… _for however long this bullshit ghost thing lasts._

********************************************************************************************************

It took about two hours of riding for his horse to yank the reins away from Vasquez’s control. The other man lunged for them, panicked, as if he thought that Jack was suddenly going to take off toward the hills. But Faraday’s favorite crazy horse only increased his speed enough to move ahead of Vaquez in their procession. Took his place between Chisolm, at the head, and Goodnight… where Faraday had almost always ridden during their journey to Rose Creek. Joshua cackled, and turned in his saddle to seek out Red Harvest a couple riders behind him. He pointed to the back of Wild Jack’s head and hollered to the younger man. 

“Knows his place, doesn’t he?”

Red only rolled his eyes at him and continued to not speak to Joshua. 

“Come on, you bastard. You’re the only one that can hear me… I’m bored. Talk to me.”

He leaned back in the saddle, threw his hands into the sky and over-dramatically raised his voice to crow. 

“Red Harvest! Tell me a story of your people!”

Faraday then proceeded to sing, holler obscenities, and howl like a coyote for about half an hour, before he heard the quickened pace of a horse coming up beside him. He turned to grin at the stoic face of the Comanche. 

‘Hi Red!”

And damned if the kid didn’t have a way of whispering that kept his voice from carrying… and he barely moved his lips, to boot. 

“Why.”

There wasn’t even a question associated to the end of that one word sentence, but Red’s meaning was clear enough to Joshua. He swiveled and hiked his leg up over the horn, so that he was riding side-saddle to face the younger man. 

“Just wanted a little attention, Red… that’s all.”

Red Harvest cut a glare at him without even turning his head from facing forward. 

“And should I give it to you? Make myself appear to be going mad?”

Joshua shrugged. 

“You could always tell the others that I’m here and be my interpreter?”

Red pulled back his upper lip in a snarl. 

“No. You talk too much.”

And with that the younger man turned his horse away, returned to ride behind Horne as he usually did. Faraday pouted and shifted back to face forward, only to find Chisolm staring at him… well… _kind of at him_ … with a considering look. Joshua made a face at him but Sam didn’t react at all. _Still couldn’t be seen then. Damn._ He glanced up ahead of them, and was immediately taken with the giant field of grass and flowers they had entered. Faraday smiled and leaned in close to Wild Jack’s side. 

“Let’s go for a run, buddy.”

He made the movement of spurring the stallion into a trot, but didn’t actually connect with anything… Wild Jack got the gist, though, and quickly passed Chisolm’s black to dart up the hill into the field. Faraday heard Vasquez’s panicked shout for the horse, but then Red’s calm voice told the outlaw that Jack wasn’t going anywhere, just blowing off steam like a fool. Which was all pretty much directed at him, but Faraday didn’t care. He laughed while Jack ran directionless into the field of wildflowers, and then kicked up his back legs a bit in play. 

After a while, Jack began to trot in increasingly wider circles around the entire group, snorting and braying in delight. Probably enjoyed the fact that even though Joshua was with him, _Jack_ was in charge. So he let him do as he pleased, confident in the fact that they wouldn’t wander too far from the group. They were always in sight. They passed several hours of travel that way until he noticed a copse of trees in the distance, a small creek running alongside it. The sun had begun to drop low in the sky, and it would be the perfect place for the group to bed down for the night… so Faraday used his grip on the saddle to nudge Jack into turning toward the trees.

The stallion must have smelled the water, because it didn’t take much convincing until he was tearing off toward the little creek. Faraday turned back to the group, and grinned when he saw both Vasquez and Red Harvest had pulled ahead of the others, as if they were both worried about Wild Jack straying too far… but Joshua knew that Vas was just being a mother hen… and Red was a naturally curious little shit… so he egged Jack on faster, just to make them work on catching up. 

Jack ran right up to the water's edge and into it about a foot deep before he dropped his head to drink. Faraday swiveled and slid off the saddle to drop to the ground. He jogged over to the shade of the trees just in time for Red and Vasquez to arrive. Red Harvest instantly appeared alarmed when he spotted riderless Jack, but it only took him a couple seconds to spot Joshua under the trees. He waved at the young Comanche affably.

“Found a campsite. You’re welcome.”

Red Harvest huffed, but dismounted and led his horse to the creek. Vasquez chuckled as he pulled off his hat to swipe at his sweaty forehead. 

“I suddenly get the feeling that our riderless horse is now running the show.”

Faraday cackled and called out, even though he knew only Red would hear him. 

“He ain’t riderless… and you bet your ass.”

The rest of the group filed into the little shaded area and began to dismount. Goodnight fanned himself with his hat for a moment, groaning as he stretched out his bad leg. 

“If having Faraday’s manic horse tag along means finding lovely little spots as this… I am all for it. I say we keep the beast. If only it could chatter on endlessly about nonsensical babble… it would be as if Joshua was still with us.”

Red Harvest snorted and muttered something Faraday couldn’t make out, but Chisolm paused and turned toward the younger man. As the group busied itself with unsaddling their horses and setting up for the night, Faraday eyed the massive tree in the centermost area of the little copse. It had several low branches that would be perfect for perching on, so he wandered over. One massive branch swept down from the trunk to create a great curve that rested on the ground, before reaching back up towards the sky. He tested the branch with his foot to see if he would sink through, but didn’t, so Joshua laid himself down in the curve of the branch. 

The rules of his new reality were senseless. He could touch _this_ , but he couldn’t touch _that_. He could ride a horse, but he couldn’t sit in a chair. Animals could see and hear him; people couldn’t. Except Red Harvest… so what made the Indian so special? It was all so damn frustrating. He glanced back over to see that Vasquez had taken it upon himself to care for Wild Jack. Horne and Billy were getting a fire set up while Goody was rustling through his pack to pull out some beans and bread. Chisolm was surveying their little campsite like the overly cautious person that he was. And Red Harvest was walking directly toward Faraday. He grinned at the younger man. 

“Miss me, Red?”

Red Harvest deftly climbed up the branch, right through Joshua, to perch on the uppermost curve nearest the trunk of the tree. 

“Do not ride so far ahead that I cannot see you.”

Faraday’s eyebrows lifted toward his hairline. 

“Why?”

Red grunted and reached down to run his fingers along the trunk of the tree. 

“You vanished for 3 days in town. I could not find you anywhere.”

Joshua smiled. _Aw, the kid cared._ He decided not to harass him any more for the evening. Instead just settled into the comfort of the tree’s embrace and turned to watch the rest of the group with Red. 

“Sure. Little shit.”

Red didn’t say anything else, but Faraday could practically feel the younger man’s amusement at his words. After a few minutes Chisolm sauntered over and leaned against the tree between them. He said something to Red in his native tongue, and the kid responded with a thoughtful hum. Sam asked something else, and Red actually turned to stare at him for a second. This time he answered in English… probably for Faraday’s benefit. 

“Everything is fine. I was only worried what Vasquez would do if we lost Faraday’s horse.”

Sam didn’t seem like he was buying it, per se, but only grunted in acknowledgment of Red’s words… and then fell into silence, observing the group as Joshua did. As darkness truly fell, Sam and Red eventually moved back to join the others near the fire. Faraday watched them all talk and break bread together. There were hours of laughter, and teasing, and raised voices. Goody recounted some tale of humor from his time before Rose Creek to a captive audience… _and an indifferent Billy_. 

Faraday watched and listened… but he didn’t leave the tree to move closer. He spent the evening feeling separate… and _other…_ from his fellows. It was only when the group bedded down for the night that he shifted to his feet and walked toward the fire. He could see Red’s eyes glittering in the dark, tracking him as he moved closer. Faraday circled the group, passed each man, smiled down at them and then moved along. He ended up at Vasquez, who as usual was already asleep. 

When Joshua lifted his gaze to the horizon, he froze. There was a strange glowing light, over the creek and nearly to the crest of the hill. It was an unnatural kaleidoscope of colors. Bright greens, neon yellows and soft blues danced on the air in shapes he couldn’t make out from this far away. He turned to walk toward it, and Red suddenly shifted to sit up, as though he was alarmed. Faraday held out a placating hand. 

“I’m not leaving for good. I’ll be back by morning.”

Red Harvest gave him an unsure look, but settled back down to rest for the night. Faraday winked at him, and then started walking toward the lights on the horizon. The closer he got, he could make out dozens of individual balls of light. They were all floating and dancing about together like a large gathering of fireflies… but were much too large to be so. There was a long line of them, starting at the top of the hill, but when he crested the peak… the line of light continued down across the land for several hundred feet. 

“Wow.”

Faraday stepped up close and slowly lifted his hand into the cluster of lights. Like almost everything else in his life right then, they moved through him without any sort of feeling or displacement. However, the lights flared even brighter when they passed between his fingers. Fascinated… and having a whole night to spare, he began to walk along the line of lights, kept his right hand in the midst of them, watched as their colors intensified and then faded with his passing. 

He eventually made it to the end of the lights, found them sinking down into a spot in the earth. He slowly dropped to rest on his haunches and watched the procession for a while. It was so beautiful and fascinating, that it took him a moment to register something standing on the other side of the lights. He startled violently when he did. 

“SHIT!”

There was a coyote. Only a handful of feet away, stood absolutely still and watching him. The lights were reflecting their colors off the animal… resulting in an almost ethereal glow to highlight the critter. Its gaze… was nothing like any other coyote Faraday had ever seen. It almost seemed to be scrutinizing him. Judging him. For a few moments man and beast only observed each other… then Faraday realized the very last of the procession of lights were vanishing into the ground… and when they did… the animal was still glowing. 

Joshua swallowed harshly. 

“What… the hell?”

The coyote tilted its head at his words, but after another couple seconds passed, it turned and disappeared into the night. Faraday exploded in awkwardly nervous laughter and slowly rose to his feet. When he turned back, he realized that he’d actually wandered pretty far from the camp. Hopefully Red was actually sleeping, and not sitting there waiting for him to return like a little worrywart. Faraday took one step forward….

… and then the noise was back. The ground-shaking, horrifying, ear-splitting noise from days ago back in Rose Creek. He cried out and covered his ears, but the noise was too great… and the earth felt as if it was trembling to pieces beneath his feet. This time there was also a heavy, oppressive feeling that washed over him like a raging river. It was oily thick and absolutely terrifying and every single bone in his body was screaming for him to run… to flee… like a prey animal, complete with eye-rolling terror. A pressure was building inside his head that almost dropped him to his knees. Faraday screamed again, eyes squeezed closed in pain. 

Out of nowhere the image of the coyote flashed in his mind. Without thinking about how or why he was doing it… something inside of him reached out to the creature and begged for help. The very next second, everything was still and silent… with the exception of the soft sounds of several grown men sleeping… and Joshua’s eyes popped open. 

He was back at camp. 

In relief, he slumped sideways and found himself crashing into Vasquez… well… passing right through the other man’s chest. When he did so, the outlaw sucked in a quick breath in his sleep. Faraday groaned and laid back flat on the ground. He was perpendicular to the other man, Joshua’s belly invisible through Vasquez’s chest. In relieved humor, Joshua laughed softly. 

“Sorry, Vas.”

“Esta bien, guero.” [12]

Faraday popped up onto his elbows in shock, but Vasquez was still out cold. Dead to the world. 

“What the hell, ya damn Texican… can you hear me?”

The other man shifted in sleep, eyebrows drawn down slightly and grumbled something under his breath about there being no such thing as a Texican, and Joshua flopped back down onto the ground. 

“Well, that figures.”

“Que, cariño? What figures?”

Faraday laughed darkly and rubbed at his eyes. 

“That you’re only open to conversin’ after I’m gone and you’re asleep.”

“Why are you gone, Joshua?”

Faraday raised his head to see Vasquez’s face, still deeply asleep, but with a pout of displeasure maring his features. 

“You know why, Vas.”

The outlaw sucked in a deep breath that caused a soft gasp to echo around the campsite. He rolled over to his side, away from Faraday and didn’t answer. Joshua sat up, body still partially faded into Vasquez’s own, and wasn’t very surprised to find Chisolm’s eyes open, gaze firmly planted on the Mexican. Sam was one of the smartest bastards Faraday had ever met, so it wasn’t surprising that the man had started to realize something was slightly off in their little group. 

“Vas… tell Sam to stop staring and go to sleep.”

Vasquez’s head suddenly snapped up, eyes wide open and startled. 

“Que?”

Sam shifted, and the movement snagged Vasquez’s attention. He turned to the older man and raised his eyebrows, obviously assuming Sam had been the one who spoke into the darkness. Chisolm only shook his head slowly and whispered. 

“Didn’t say anything.”

Vasquez’s brows were drawn down in consternation, and he slowly shifted up into a seated position, unknowingly shoulder to shoulder with Faraday. _If Faraday had been a solid person, anyway._

“Then who spoke? Just now?”

Chisolm hummed softly and didn’t shift his piercing gaze away from the outlaw. 

“You were talking in your sleep. To Faraday.”

Vasquez froze, not moving even to breath, for several seconds… before he slowly swiveled his head around him as if he expected to find Joshua sitting in the campsite waiting for him. _Which… really… is kinda exactly what he was doing… just… Vas couldn’t see him._ Eventually the outlaw’s gaze settled on Wild Jack, tied up with the rest of the horses near the massive tree that sheltered them. When he spoke again, his voice sounded absolutely fragile and it was horribly painful for Joshua to hear. 

“Guero? Are you here?”

Faraday groaned and flopped back to the ground. 

“Yeeeeeesss... But you can’t hear me, Vas. And Red Harvest is being an unhelpful little shit about it.”

There was silence for several moments, then without another word, Vasquez laid down again and rolled to turn his back towards Chisolm. Faraday watched as Sam sighed and rubbed a hand down his face, before he closed his eyes and went back to sleep. After a couple moments in the oppressive quiet of the sleeping camp, Faraday decided to close his eyes, as well… even though sleep didn’t necessarily pull at him any longer. 

Seemingly the very next second after he did so, the camp burst into raucous sound and Joshua startled violently, opened his eyes to find… that it was morning… and all of his companions were saddling up their horses and preparing to head out. 

“What the hell?”

Out of nowhere, Red Harvest was suddenly in his face, voice pitched low to a whisper and eyes just slightly panicked. 

“Where did you go?”

Faraday shook his head and spun around to take in the flurry of activity. 

“Nowhere. I was… I was here… and then I closed my eyes… and now it’s morning.”

Red’s voice dropped an octave and he practically growled in response. 

“Do not close your eyes again.”

Joshua scoffed, but the younger man appeared completely serious. A movement in his periphery caused him to turn to his right, and Chisolm was there, only a few paces away, staring at Red Harvest with that damned contemplative look on his face. 

“Kid… Chisolm is working it out… it’d be a lot easier if you just fess up to everyone that I’m hanging around.”

Red turned immediately to eye Sam, and then without another word spun on his heel to go back toward his horse. Faraday kept his gaze on Sam, who was shrewdly eyeing the very spot of earth that Joshua was stood upon. The older man’s eyes narrowed for a brief moment, before he too turned away and retreated to his black gelding. Joshua put his hands upon his hips and spat. ( _Although nothing actually hit the ground._ )

“Well, this is going to be a very joyous day indeed.”

********************************************************************************************************

They’d covered quite a large amount of distance by the time the sun began to dip down on the horizon. Wild Jack had been content to merely walk in time with the group for most of the day, so Joshua had been privy to the conversations passing amongst the men in his company. _(Even if they were mostly unaware that he was with them.)_ Goodnight was regaling the group with tales of his and Billy’s exploits prior to Rose Creek. Most of which revolved around ignorant men underestimating Billy Rocks, and the resulting humiliation they met when he trounced them soundly. 

For his part, Billy would only smile indulgently at Goody’s effusive words, although Faraday had no doubt in his mind that the tales were likely one-hundred percent accurate. In his short companionship with the other man… he could picture Rocks doing any number of amazing things. Horrific. _Terrifying_. But amazing nonetheless.

Joshua turned in his saddle to glance toward the back of the group. Vasquez had been nearly mute all day long. Now he was trailing at the end of the procession, his gaze unfocused on the distant horizon. Other members of the living six would check in with him every so often, but it was glaringly obvious that their outlaw wasn’t feeling himself that day. Faraday groaned and turned back around. 

“Red!”

The young Comanche subtly angled his head so he could acknowledge Joshua out of the corner of his eye. His eyebrow ticked upwards once, as if asking what the hell Joshua wanted with him. Faraday waved a hand back towards Vasquez. 

“Do something about that damn moody Mexican! Ask him what the hell crawled up his ass and died! He’s been sulking all day and it’s driving me crazy.”

Red Harvest responded with an annoyed huff before kicking his horse into a trot and moving up to join Horne at the front of the procession. Faraday crossed his arms over his chest as he watched the younger man obviously ignore his request. 

“Rude little bastard.”

Heaving a deep sigh, Faraday reached forward to pat the side of Wild Jack’s neck and shifted himself to indicate he wanted the stallion to turn. 

“Come on boy, let’s go try and cheer up the idiot.”

Jack tossed his head once, but seemed to garner what Faraday wanted, and spun to the right quickly enough to kick up some dust. The stallion walked directly towards Vas and his white mare, not slowing once until the mare was forced to canter sideways to avoid the larger animal. The motion of his horse finally gained Vasquez’s full attention and he had to work to settle his girl. Wild Jack didn’t care, obviously, and he and Faraday butted softly against the mare, side to side as Jack turned to walk alongside. He was far too close, and Vas’ leg was caught lightly between the two massive animals, but Jack wasn’t looking to injure and only applied the lightest pressure. Vasquez snorted at the stallion’s antics, still under the impression that the horse was doing all of these things under his own desire. 

“Que haces, lindo?” [13]

Wild Jack tossed his head in response to the outlaw’s voice, and Vasquez chuckled. He leaned forward to pat softly at the stallion’s flank.

“You are just as crazy as your owner was, sí?” 

He leaned far into Faraday’s space to ruffle the horse’s mane, and gave Joshua the first close up look at the Mexican’s face that day. There were lines of strain around Vasquez’s eyes and he just seemed… tired… and sad. Faraday sighed. 

“Dammit, Vasquez. You need to snap outta this shit. It does you no good to sulk around like this. Trust me… I am not worthy of this much grief. You’re much better off without me around.”

Obviously, the other man couldn’t hear him, and simply settled back into his own saddle… seemingly content to ride along with Wild Jack pressed up against him. There was a small smile on the outlaw’s face, though… so maybe Jack was onto something. _Smother with affection. Why not?_ Faraday snorted and settled in to ride along in comfortable silence for a while. 

Just before dark the group rounded a line of trees and spied a town in the distance. Sam and Goody conversed about the possibility of a night’s stay in a hotel… and apparently the prospect of a evening spent with a real bed won out over caution. As the six made their way towards the town, Vasquez reached over to snag Wild Jack’s reigns and loop them around his own saddle horn. He clicked softly under his breath at the stallion. 

“You stay with me, lindo.”

Faraday snorted. 

“Aw, Vas… you say the sweetest things.”

The Mexican outlaw tugged the brim of his hat down low over his eyes as the procession moved into town. The sign over the post office declared the settlement as Round Hill. Now granted, they had ridden in at night, but Faraday was pretty sure they he had seen nary a hill in the immediate area… let alone a round one. 

“I dunno, Vas… people sure are dumb when it comes to naming their towns. Sometimes I think it’s all just wishful thinking.”

Right before the group made it into the town proper, they passed the church and its graveyard… which actually had an inordinately large amount of markers bleached by the sun. Faraday found he couldn’t look away from them… thoughts of his own grave in Rose Creek tumbling around in his mind. It made him settle into a bit of quiet melancholy, and before he realized it… his fellows were dismounting at the stables of the boarding house. 

He hopped down quickly before anyone could end up reaching through him again to take the saddle off of Wild Jack. The young boy Chisolm was paying to care for the horses was eyeing the six men with seven steeds in confusion, but Sam only patted him on the head and walked away without offering any explanation. When the youngin’ neared Wild Jack, Vasquez stepped in between them. 

“Don’t worry, niño… I will care for this one. You see to my white, eh?” [14]

The outlaw handed the reins of his mare to the boy before turning to guide Faraday’s Jack into a stable. Joshua watched in curiosity as Vasquez took the utmost care with Jack. Removing his tack and brushing him down. Settling him with some new hay in the stall and giving him feed and water. By the time he was finished, the young boy was standing next to Joshua watching him. The Mexican smiled at the boy when he noticed him. 

“All done, niño?”

The kid nodded his head and scuffed at the ground with his boot.

“My Papa and brothers help, too. I took care of your pretty white mare, though, mister. She’s real sweet.”

Vasquez grinned at the boy as he came out of Jack’s stall, closing the gate behind him. 

“Yes, she is. She is a good horse.”

The kid fidgeted again, before turning to eye Wild Jack with consideration. 

“Did… did your company lose someone, sir?”

Vasquez froze and Faraday groaned. 

“Jesus wept, son… learn some tact would you?”

For his part, however, Vasquez simply sighed and patted the young man on the shoulder softly. 

“Sí. Yes, we did. A very good man‒” (Faraday snorted) “‒sacrificed himself so that many people would live.”

The kid eyed Wild Jack again.

“An’ you keep his horse cuz you miss him a lot?”

Vasquez laughed softly and nodded. 

“Sí, but I think it is more that his horse keeps us, rather than we keep him. Wild Jack is a strong-willed monster with a mind of his own. Much like his owner was.”

The kid grinned for a second, but it disappeared quickly from his face. 

“We lost a-lotta people here, too, mister.”

Clearly sensing a story, Faraday shifted to squat on his haunches next to the boy. Unsurprisingly, when he glanced over… Vasquez had done the same. One of his hands softly resting on this kid’s shoulder. The boy continued, unprompted. 

“‘Bout two months ago… lotsa bandits come into town. Killed a whole buncha people. ‘Cluding my Ma and Granny. Papa said they was dirty cowards who waited until most of the menfolk were out workin’ the land. Papa said the old Sheriff was yella’ and didn’t try to stop ‘em. Just hid himself. He got run outta town right after.”

By this point Joshua’s eyebrows must have been up to his hairline. He glanced over and Vasquez had the same shocked look to his face. 

“And the bandits, niño? Where did they go?”

The boy shrugged, sniffled and wiped his nose on his sleeve.

“I dunno. Papa said they got what they was after and probably moved on to the next poor town.”

There was an intense look of concentration on Vasquez’s face… and even if that probably meant trouble… Joshua was just happy to see the sullen look from earlier gone. The outlaw stood and affectionately ruffled the boy’s hair. He dug a coin out of his pocket and flipped it to the kid. 

“You make sure nothing happens to Wild Jack there, eh, niño?”

The boy nodded vigorously, and ran off clutching the coin like it was a treasure. Faraday stood slowly as he watched him go. When Vasquez finally spun on his heel to head towards the saloon, Joshua was right at his side. 

“Group big enough to take out half a town ain’t no joke, Vas. They gotta have left a trail of destruction in their wake. No way this was the only town affected. You gonna‒”

A quick, unnatural movement in his periphery had Faraday freezing in his tracks. He swiveled toward where he had seen the motion… but couldn’t find anything out of place. It had been white, and moving far too quickly to have been a simple townsfolk walking down the street. He pivoted around in a full circle… but nothing else in the area caught his attention. 

“Oooooookay… Not sure what that was… but I don’t like it.”

By the time he turned back to his outlaw companion, Vasquez was already pushing through the doors fo the saloon. 

“Aw, dammit.”

Faraday took off at a trot to catch up with his fellows. Right before he made it to the steps of the porch… something else light grayish and moving quickly spun past him and he yelped. 

“WHAT the HELL!?”

Another spin on his heels showed nothing amiss in the immediate area, and he quickly backed up the stairs and into the doors of the building. When he turned to face the bar and find his companions… an unholy screech of fright exploded past his lips. There was a woman… standing in the middle of the room… but… but she was devoid of any color. Black and white and gray. Vaguely transparent. _And half of her face was missing._ Bits of flesh and brains dangling sideways from the part that remained. She abruptly turned and began to walk toward the stairs that led to the rooms above. Faraday hollered again when he noticed another black and white transparent man standing at the bar with a hole so large in his chest that you could see the bottles on the shelf behind him. 

“HOLY SHIT. WHAT IN GOD’S NAME???”

From the corner of his eye, Faraday could see his companions seated around a table. When he turned to face them, Red Harvest was standing up staring at him… the other five were eying the young Comanche with concern. Joshua flailed his arms about, indicating the two horrifying apparitions in the room. 

“RED!? Do you see this? What the hell? WHAT THE HELL, RED?” 

Red Harvest’s eyes tracked quickly around the room, but when he returned his gaze to Faraday there was obvious confusion all across his face. He shook his head slightly in the negative and Joshua immediately pointed at the apparition standing behind the counter. 

“Are you tellin’ me… that you can see ME… but you can’t see THAT?”

Red Harvest glanced again to the bar, but swept his gaze almost immediately back to Joshua. 

“Jumpin’ Jesus! Are you kiddin’ me?”

An icy breeze sent shivers down his neck, and Faraday turned towards the stairs and promptly let out another screech of shock. The woman missing half of her face was standing two feet away… staring directly at him with her one eye. Joshua jumped backward a pace before scurrying over towards the table of his fellows and slipping behind Red Harvest to keep the wall at his back. The woman hadn’t moved to follow, but she was still staring at Joshua with an unblinking gaze. 

“What in God’s name‒”

“You okay, Red?”

Chisolm’s calm voice finally drew Joshua’s gaze away from the horror standing in the middle of the room. Red had yet to sit back down, and he obviously was drawing their companions attention with his actions. The younger man glanced at Sam and nodded, then swiftly took one more visual sweep of the room, and finally settled back into his seat… where he was met with stares and silence. Faraday’s attention was being split between the obviously dead woman still watching him, and his companions’ worry over their youngest member. 

“Did you see something, son?”

Horne’s reedy voice had a level of tension to it… which would make sense, Joshua supposed… it wasn’t often that their unflappable indian reacted without purpose. 

“No. It was nothing.”

Never one for flowery speech like Goodnight, their stoic warrior immediately moved to begin drinking and completely ignored the concerned gazes of the men who surrounded him. Faraday returned to watching the horrible vision silently staring at him in return. 

“I’m gonna talk, Red… and you’re just gonna half to deal with it. There are people. Like… c-colorless people… in the room. A lady missing half her head is eyeballin’ me from near the stairs. And there’s a gentleman behind the bar with a hole in his chest you could stick your arm through.”

Red subtly shifted his gaze to both locations, but near as Faraday could figure… the kid wasn’t actually SEEING shit. 

“I mean… they’re dead. Obviously. They have to be dead. So that makes them ghosts, I guess… but… so am I, right? Why… why do I still look like ME… and they look like nightmares? And why can you see me? But you can’t see them? And‒damn it all, here comes another one.”

Another spirit walked into the saloon without the swinging doors giving so much as a twitch. This one was a portly little man, with a Deputy’s badge on his shirt and about a dozen weeping bullet holes in his chest. The thing walked up to the dead woman standing in the middle of the room and stopped… then slow as molasses… its head swiveled sideways to also stare directly at Faraday. 

“Oh no. No no no no no… this is not okay.” 

The voices of his friends were muted in his ears as he glared at the spirit people. Vaguely he recognized that Vasquez was re-telling the story of the young boy in the stable, and Sam and Goody were discussing which way the bandits may have gone… and if it was worth it to try and track them down after so long a time. Vasquez was arguing that they should at least try… with the amount of people murdered in the one town alone, who could know how many other towns were meeting the same fate. 

Faraday was listening to it all… to an extent. But his eyes were not moving away from the dead spectors attempting to eye him down as a cat did a mouse. He was so focused on the damn Deputy that it took him several moments to notice that the man from behind the bar had moved over to stand beside the woman as well. The unholy trinity didn’t even blink as they watched him. Joshua scooted a little closer to Red … _not that it would do a damn thing_. 

“That’s settled then.”

Faraday was startled into turning towards Chisolm, who was pushing his chair back and slowly rising to stand. 

“Everyone get a good night's sleep and we’ll head out in the morning. I’ll check with the Sheriff and try to get a bead on the direction the bandits may have gone.”

Faraday watched Sam walk away, and shuddered violently when the Marshal stepped right through the apparitions as if they were made of nothing more than smoke. The damn things didn’t even break their gaze, completely undisturbed by Sam’s presence. 

“Well … that is me to bed then.”

Vasquez rose and stretched his arms above his head briefly. Billy softly muttered a room number at the outlaw, obviously having already acquired accommodations for their merry band. Vasquez responded with gratitude, mostly in Spanish, and began to walk away. Faraday made a whine of protest under his breath. Even though he would dearly love to speak with Red, he didn’t like their group splitting up in this God-forsaken town. 

The band was obviously breaking up for the night though, which heightened the distress Joshua was feeling. He didn’t want to walk past those… things. And he definitely didn’t want to go for a wander on his own like he did the night previous. _Uh uh. Hell no._ Not when the flashes he saw outside definitely probably meant there were a lot more of these spirits. 

Red Harvest rose slowly in front of him, shifting his head just enough to meet Faraday’s eyes and lifted a single eyebrow in question. The kid obviously expected Joshua to follow him. 

“Damn it all, Red. There are three of them now, just standing there… I don’t wanna go near them.”

The younger man turned to take in the entire bar… and then swiveled to walk the opposite direction of the dead folk. Faraday hurried to catch up with him, and was surprised when he realized the kid had noticed another door leading out back behind the building.

“Oh God bless.”

Once they were back out into the town proper, it became glaringly apparent that the excessive number of gravestones by the church was no fluke. Gray, transparent people were meandering about everywhere in the town. Faraday sucked in a harsh breath. 

“Jesus wept.”

Red tucked himself against the outside wall of the saloon and again swept his gaze around the area. 

“What are you seeing?”

Faraday was so happy to have a response from someone that he stumbled over to the younger man and nearly screamed in his ear. 

“Spooks… spirits… ghosts! Hell if I know, Red! They’re all gray ‘n white. Blurred a little an’ see through-like. There’s dozens of them, all over the place. I don’t think that kid was lying when he told Vasquez those bandits killed alotta people.”

The younger man nodded and glanced back towards the door they had exited from. 

“What scared you in there?”

Joshua took a deep breath ( _which is silly really because he’s not actually breathing is he?_ ), and willed his nerves to calm down. 

“When I first walked in, they all ignored me… but one by one they stopped what they were doin’ and just stood there and watched me. Gave me the shivers.”

Red only grunted in response, then swiftly began to move down the alley in the direction of the boarding house across the street, keeping tight against the wall beside them. Faraday scooted to follow him, eyes sweeping madly around at the dozens of dead folk walking about. Once he got too close to the apparition of an older woman, smack in the middle of the street, and she turned to stare at him just like the last group. 

“Aw, hell.”

He double-timed it at that point, and actually beat Red Harvest to the boarding house. Slipped right through the door like it was made of air… or more like HE was air, rather… and nearly stumbled directly through Goodnight. 

“WHOOP!”

Faraday twisted sideways just in time to avoid walking right through the sharpshooter. A second later Red opened the door, speaking in his native tongue… likely cursing Faraday’s sudden dash, and Goody raised both eyebrows at his appearance. 

“Rushing mighty quickly there, my young friend. Something on your tail?”

The Comanche only shook his head before moving further into the room, eyeing Faraday as he did so. Joshua shrugged his shoulders at him before he spun to take in the rest of the foyer. There didn’t appear to be any ghosts about, so he met Red’s gaze and signalled in the negative. Goody was watching the younger man move about the room with a curious look on his face. Faraday had no doubt that he was observing every detail, most likely including how many times Red seemed to be staring at what, to Goody, appeared to be an empty bit of space. Between Chisolm and Robicheaux… hell, probably Billy Rocks as well, there was no way Red would be able to keep up with the charade of Faraday's non-existence for much longer. 

Red Harvest vanished up the steps, most likely to his room for the night, but Faraday decided to tag along with Goodnight for the moment. The Cajun was swaggering over to a seating area in the corner that looked to have a small bar and kitchen attached. Chisolm and Horne were already seated at a table, and Goody joined them. 

Faraday chuckled. 

“Sam, you liar… you said you were headin’ to bed.”

Obviously no one reacted to his words. In fact, Goodnight actually spoke over the last few of them. 

“I know that I cannot be the only one of our company to have noticed our young Comanche friend acting strangely of late?”

Horne hummed softly, but it was Sam who answered, scratching at his stubbly chin. 

“There is definitely something, and I have my suspicions… however far-fetched as they may be.”

Goody leaned forward against the table, eyes bright like a child eyeing some treat. 

“Oh? Sam Chisolm. Do tell.”

The Marshal glanced over at the keeper, minding the bar, beforing lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. 

“I may have overheard our young friend seemingly conversing with thin air. On multiple occasions, in fact.”

Both Goodnight and Horne raised their eyebrows at the statement, but neither spoke. Goody even motioned with his hand for Sam to continue. For his part, Faraday only grinned and walked closer to the group. His faith in the ever-observant Marshal was obviously not misplaced. The next statement even brought a near-giggle to his lips. 

“And the other night… Vasquez was talking in his sleep. To Faraday.”

That rocked Goody back into his chair, the surprise obvious on his face. 

“Are you suggesting, am I hearing you correctly, that you think our dearly departed Joshua is still in our company?”

Faraday grinned.

“Aw, I’m ‘dearly’? You are a damn fine charmer, Mr. Robicheaux.”

Chisolm held up his hands, almost as if in surrender. 

“I am not suggesting anything… only merely stating a fact. That Vasquez was talking in his sleep, and to my ears… it definitely sounded like one side of a two-way conversation. One wherein he called Faraday by name.”

“‘So a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.’ [15] You should not speak of such blasphemous things. Our Joshua should be resting peacefully in company of our Lord. He deserves no less. ‘Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.’” [16]

Horne’s softly spoken words immediately sombered his companions. Faraday groaned and longed to smack the table in frustration. 

“Dammit, you old coot. I’m right HERE! And Sam was so close to figuring it out. Don’t distract them from it!”

At that point Goody cleared his throat and leaned sideways far enough to swing up his bad leg and cross it over the good one. 

“Resting peacefully, indeed. Did you speak with the new Sheriff, Sam?”

Chisolm was silent for a moment more, before he nodded and settled further back into his own seat. 

“Didn’t have much to say, unfortunately. Just that there was nearly a dozen in the group. Overpowered the law, robbed a lot of people, killed even more. Did some unspeakable things to the womenfolk. Headed east toward Bodie last anyone seen of them.”

Goody groaned and tilted his head back to stare up at the ceiling. 

“Bodie? That is one hellacious ride, Sam.”

The Marshal nodded. 

“It is. But I believe it would be worthwhile. Who knows how many bounties are on a group of men such as this? I wouldn’t be surprised if at least half of them had individual warrants out, could add up to a pretty penny.”

Faraday decided that if the old men were just going to talk shop, he would meander off to see what Vasquez was up to. He took his time in climbing the stairs of the boarding house, cautiously peeking around each corner for ghostly figures. Coast clear for the time being, he trotted down the hallway and tried desperately to remember what the room number was that had been whispered to the outlaw. 

“Aw, curse it.”

He stuck his head through three doors very quickly, thankfully not witnessing any of his companions in less than decent state of dress. The fourth door revealed one Mexican outlaw sitting motionless on the bed, down to his white shirt and underpants, elbows resting on his knees whilst his hands cradled his shaggy head. Faraday popped the rest of the way into the room. 

“What are you doin’, Vas? Get some sleep, dammit. Or fall asleep, rather… so we can converse.”

He stepped up to the outlaw and swished his hands through the other man’s skull, snickering at himself… and resolutely ignoring how he went out of his way to keep from passing through any other people… but Vasquez didn’t bother him. After several moments the other man heaved a deep sigh that he could probably feel all the way down to his toes, before finally scooting back on the tiny mattress to lay down on the bed. Then of course, he had to roll partially back up to lean over and blow out the candle that had been flickering on the side table. It took nearly an hour before the soft snores of Vasquez’s normal sleeping habit began to fill the darkened room. Faraday grinned and swiftly settled on the floor next to the bed. 

“Hey, Vas… you asleep?”

There was an annoyed groan from the bed. 

“Cállate, Joshua.” [17]

Faraday grinned. 

“I’m pretty sure I know what that one means, Vas, but I’m also pretty sure you don’t mean it… so I will do you the favor of ignoring your request.”

Another grunt came from the large man currently huddled into a ball in the middle of the bed. 

“Sam’s talkin’ with the folks about heading out to Bodie after those bandits. You better be careful, you damn Mexican… you ain’t got me to watch your back anymore. The last thing you need to be is one of these damned horrifying see-through people.”

Vasquez shifted slightly in his slumber. 

“Qué? Cariño? See-through people?”

Faraday nodded his head excitedly before he scooted up to his knees in order to hunch slightly over the prone figure of Vasquez on the bed below him.

“Damned yes, see-through people. You should see them. They’re creepy as all Hell, Vas. Dead, obviously, with their wounds showin’ and no color to ‘em at all. They don’t say anything, just slowly shuffle around town… and sometimes stare at me when I let’em get too close.”

Vasquez made a sound of distress as he shifted closer to Faraday in his sleep. Joshua could feel the soft smile on his own face and cursed himself ten ways to Sunday for his ridiculousness. But Vas looked so different when he was sleeping. The stress lines on his face smoothed out, and his brows relaxed. Joshua leaned forward enough to poke at the outlaw’s mustache… though his finger only slid right through it with no purchase. 

“Hey, Vas,” Faraday found himself whispering in the still room, “... what’s your first name?”

The other man shifted slightly in his sleep, but after a few more seconds, answered in a soft voice. 

“Joaquin.” [18]

Faraday could feel his own smile nearly split his face. 

“Wah-keen?”

Vasquez suddenly popped up off the bed, eyes wide as saucers, and glanced frantically around the room. Faraday laughed outright at the look on the outlaw’s face, and oddly enough… Vasquez’s eyes actually widened further after he did so. 

“J-Joshua?”

Not moving from his crouch by the bed, Faraday smiled. 

“Yes, Joaquin?”

Vas’ brows furrowed in concentration. He may have heard Faraday’s laughter, but it didn’t appear that he could hear any actual words while he was awake. After a few more moments, the Mexican flopped back onto his bed and groaned. 

“Estoy perdiendo la mente.” [19]

Faraday huffed and crossed his arms, but before he could respond that he STILL didn’t know any Spanish… Vasquez continued talking. 

“Joshua… cariño… if you are still here… I am sorry if it is me keeping you here. You should be at rest.”

Faraday snorted. 

“I’m pretty sure you don’t have any say in the matter, Vas. I’m not sure if I do either. And Red’s being pretty tight-lipped about‒”

Something frigidly cold and unnatural in the air gave him pause. Faraday glanced over his shoulder… and the ghost of the Deputy from the saloon was standing just inside the door of the room, staring at him. Joshua startled and shrieked, jumped to his feet and stepped back a couple paces until he was literally standing in the middle of Vasquez’s bed. 

“What are you doing in here!?”

The Deputy just continued to stare at him in that horribly creepy way that he’d done earlier in the night. There was a shift of light… and the bartender and woman from the saloon also stepped through the door. They were all eyeing him like a dog would an extra juicy steak. Joshua took another step back, but the icy chill hit him from behind again, and when he whipped around… a ghost he hadn’t seen before was stepping through the wall of the next room and reaching toward him. It was too close to avoid, and its gray hand brushed against his shoulder. An intense sear of pain flared to life and Faraday cried out in shock. He stumbled forward and the three spirits at the door stepped closer with their arms outstretched. 

“SHIT!”

Faraday whirled to dodge them, and forwent the door to jump right through the wall into the room next door. Chisolm was sound asleep on the bed in the room, and there were two more ghosts advancing on Faraday from the door. He leapt over Sam just in time to avoid the four spooks from Vasquez’s room following him through the wall. 

“SHIT!”

He took off running again, this time managing to make it through the corner of Sam’s room and end up in the hallway. If his heart had still been beating in his chest… it would have skipped in fear. Dozens of ghosts were making their way up the stairs; as soon as he had appeared they all veered away from Vasquez’s room and started towards Joshua. He was frozen for a second too long, an arm reached out from Chisolm’s room and brushed along his back. The searing fire it caused had him screaming in pain. He broke into a stumbling run and hollered as loud as he could. 

“RED! RED HARVEST! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?”

He went practically head first into the room across the hall, but that only found Goody and Billy Rocks curled up tight together in a single bed… which would have normally given him pause, but at this very moment… he didn’t care one lick. 

“RED!!!”

He dove into the next room just as half a dozen spirits walked into Goody’s room. Thank all the saints… in the next room he found Horne and Red Harvest on their feet looking panicked. Well… Red was looking at Joshua in panic… Horne was mostly staring at Red trying to determine where the danger was. Faraday flung himself towards the other man. 

“RED!!”

The younger man held out his arms, as if he could actually catch Faraday, God bless him, and apparently forgot he was supposed to be keeping mum about Joshua’s presence in front of the others, because he spoke quickly with a concerned tone. 

“What is happening?”

Before Faraday could even answer, a dozen spirits were converging on the room from every side except the outside wall. Joshua screeched and backed up between his two living companions. 

“It’s the dead people, Red! They’re comin’ after me!”

Red Harvest swiveled his gaze around the room, even though he knew damn well that he wasn’t going to see anything.

“Why?”

Faraday growled and backed up behind Horne, who was closest to the window. 

“Well, I don’t rightly know, ya damn indian! They keep trying to grab me and it burns somethin’ awful!”

Almost as if on cue, a horrifyingly mangled arm reached through the wall to Faraday’s left and gripped his forearm. The other touches had been mere grazes… and they in no way compared to the pain that blazed to life in his arm. Faraday was man enough to admit that he screamed loud enough to wake the Heavens. He wrenched his arm away and stumbled back. When he glanced down at his arm… the area that had been touched had faded into the same pale, lifeless gray as the ghosts around him. 

“Oh… oh hell no.”

Red’s eyes shifted to Faraday’s arm and widened in shock. 

“We need to get you out of here.”

Faraday nodded frantically, gripping his now numb arm. 

“Agreed.”

He glanced back at the window before returning his gaze to the room, which was quickly filling with spirits. In his peripheral he could make out Horne trying to speak to Red Harvest, but the kid was busy packing up his bags. The young Comanche turned to Joshua and pointed to the window. 

“Get to the stable. I will meet you.”

Not needing to be told twice, Joshua took a running leap out of the boarding house and flew through the air for several seconds before touching down outside in the middle of the main street. Being pretty much weightless appeared to have some perks after all. He whipped around towards the building he’d just left and was shocked to see dozens more spooks… they had clearly been making their way up towards him on the second floor… but now were turning around to follow him outside. 

“Dammit.”

Faraday spun on his heel and sprinted toward the stable. When he was almost there, a movement in the street made him pause. There was a coyote standing at the edge of town, still as stone, and just staring at Faraday. The creature looked an awful lot like the coyote he had seen the night with the lights… including the eyes that seemed too intelligent for an animal. The creature moved and it looked… almost as if it had bowed its head at Faraday. Too dumbfounded to react any other way, Joshua returned the bow. A second later Wild Jack came barrelling out of the stable… fully saddled and tacked and ready to go. 

“What the hell!?”

A quick glance back up the street showed the coyote had vanished, but the icy chill creeping up Faraday’s back told him there was no time to fop about anymore. He swung himself up onto Jack’s back as effortlessly as if he was still alive, but before he even had time to settle… there was a spirit of a young woman right there grabbing at his thigh. 

Faraday cried out in pain and Wild Jack reared back. The horse’s eyes were wide and rolling. Joshua was pretty sure his mount could actually see all the gray spirits around them. Not wanting to risk one more second in this damned town, Faraday kicked at Jack to go, and the stallion took off out of town like the devil himself was on his heels. 

After a few moments, he realized there was an echo of hoofbeats, and Joshua glanced back… happier than he could adequately express when he caught sight of Red Harvest on his paint galloping after him at full speed. They made it a couple miles out of town before Red whistled for them to stop, and surprisingly, Wild Jack responded without issue. 

For his part, Faraday was panting in pain and probably a little bit in shock. Taking stock of himself… he had a large gray spot on his thigh, his forearm, his shoulder… and most likely one on his back, although he couldn’t see it for himself. Each spot was still buzzing with pain, though nothing like the initial touch had been. Red pulled his pony right up alongside Jack and was obviously staring at the discoloured patches himself. 

“Are you okay?”

Faraday took a big, shuddering gulp of air before he nodded.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think so. What the everloving-hell was that, Red?”

The younger man shook his head and turned to stare at the town in the distance. Several lights were now on in the boarding house, and somehow Faraday knew exactly which ones they were. Even if he thought it blasphemous, Horne was probably a little unnerved by the show that Red Harvest had put on in the room tonight. Another blaze of pain in his thigh had Joshua sucking in a breath and glancing down at the gray spot. 

“Oh hell.”

Red had sprung off his horse and was nearly climbing into Faraday’s lap before he even stopped speaking. The younger man gripped at the edges of the gray on his thigh. 

“It is… growing larger?”

Joshua nodded. 

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it is. Really, Red… what the hell was that all about?”

The young Comanche grunted, but was concentrating on the gray spot and didn’t meet Joshua’s eyes. 

“They were ghosts. Death walkers. Unable to find peace and move on.”

Faraday reached to put his hand over Red’s… but obviously it went straight through. He didn’t let that distract him from what he wanted to ask, however. 

“Red. If those are ghosts… and you can’t see them… then what the Hell am I?”

The younger man finally glanced up to meet Joshua’s eyes. He stared intently at him for several seconds before turning his back and mounting his own horse again. 

“You are something different.”

Faraday groaned and threw his hands into the sky at the typical non-answer from the kid. 

“We should go.”

Now that brought Joshua’s attention right back. 

“What? No! We gotta wait. Horne is probably gathering the crew as we speak, tellin’ ‘em that you’ve gone off your rocker and they need to run after you.”

Red turned his horse in a circle before glancing back at the town in the distance. 

“I do not think that’s a good idea.”

Faraday eyed him for a couple seconds before responding. 

“Why? Just cause you think they’ll call you crazy? That they won’t believe you?”

Red Harvest simply shook his head and spun his horse towards the distant mountains. Joshua glanced back toward the town, and he was almost definitely sure he could make out several figures running toward the stables. If he could stall the kid some more, they wouldn’t have a choice but to wait, because their folk would see them standing on the crest of the small swell they were on as soon as they rode out of town. 

“Red. Come on. I need you to tell me what you know. Why am I so different than those poor bastards haunting the town? They didn’t even speak, and they sure don’t seem like they can just meander all over the damn country like I can do. You have to know something, kid. Please?”

He knew he had him when Red’s shoulders slumped just slightly. The younger man relaxed his stance on his horse and turned back to Faraday, obviously giving up on running away. 

“I do not know everything. I just know that you are not them.”

He waved his hand in the direction of the town. 

“You are not like them. Those… things… are just a leftover piece of the person they once were. You are you. Entirely. You only miss your body.”

Joshua snorted. 

“Well, that’s a pretty important part to be missing.”

Red looked him dead-square in the eye for several silent seconds. Then spoke. 

“Is it? Would you rather be them?”

Joshua groaned again and turned away from the kid. Five mounted shapes were tearing through the distance between them and the town. Joshua shook his head.

“No. No… I would rather be nothing, than whatever those things were.”

He glanced back toward Red Harvest. 

“But why? What makes me so special? I’m just a drunk idiot with a talent for gambling.”

Red Harvest shifted his horse until it was pressed right up against Wild Jack, and met Joshua’s gaze with the most furious glare he’d ever seen on the man. He was pretty sure if he were in his physical body, Red might have stuck him with an arrow. 

“Are you stupid?”

Faraday’s back straightened he shouted out a wounded, “Hey!”, but Red only continued to talk right over him. 

“Knowing that you would not survive, you rode out and destroyed that gun. We may have saved the town as a group, but your act of sacrifice saved everyone. Including me. Including them.”

He pointed towards the riders that were nearly upon them. 

“No one would have lived in Rose Creek if that gun had not been destroyed. The day would have been lost. You are special. You are worthy. And the land has rewarded you. That is why you are different than those things down there. Do not forget that.”

Joshua was stunned silent. Not only was that more words in a row than he could ever remember Red Harvest speaking to him, but there was a determined fire in the kid’s eyes that told Faraday he meant every word that he’d said. They continued to stare at each other in silence as the chaos of pounding hooves announced the arrival of their companions. Chisolm rode right up next to Red, the others coming to a slow stop behind him. For a handful of seconds it was complete silence… before Sam broke it. 

“Red Harvest? You okay, son?”

The young Comanche finally turned to stare at Sam. His gaze then drifted over the group one by one slowly… before coming back to rest on Joshua’s face. He raised a single eyebrow and Joshua grinned like a maniac. He knew exactly what the kid was going to do. No more hiding after tonight. Red shifted in the saddle and then pointed a single finger directly at Joshua. 

“I am fine. Faraday is the one who is the idiot.” 

The reaction was instant. Several voices hollered and expelled questions all at once, all over each other. Faraday starting hooting with uproarious laughter, enjoying his friends’ shock and bewilderment to the utmost. Red turned to glare at him. 

“Stop laughing. You bray like a donkey.”

Faraday tried to calm his snickering down, but he was just so excited that he had finally worn Red down… and soon he’d be able to actually communicate with the group as a whole. He was looking forward to it. He didn’t notice at first that the voices around them had died down, but Red Harvest obviously did. The kid glanced around at their group, and damned if it didn’t appear that the stoic son of a bitch was blushing. 

“Who was laughing, Red? There’s no one there but old Wild Jack.”

Leave it to Sam Chisolm to attempt raining on Faraday’s parade. Red burst out some guttural words in his own language that had Sam’s eyebrows ticking upwards. Obviously the young kid had some choice words for the leader of their little band of fools. He took up English again right after. 

“You heard me the first time. Do not try to treat me like I am crazy. Faraday was laughing. Because he is an idiot that finds this all funny.”

Joshua grinned. 

“Hey, now… not nice to call names, Red.”

“You already called yourself an idiot. I am just agreeing with you.”

That made Joshua grin and turn back to the rest of the group… they were all looking pale and confused. He laughed again. 

“Oh, man… Red. This is gonna be so much fun. Tell Horne I said it can’t be blasphemous if it’s true.”

“No.”

“Come on! Tell Goody and Rocks that they cuddle up real nice together.”

Red’s eyes widened slightly at that, and he swung his gaze briefly to the pair astride their horses, but then quickly crossed his arms over his chest.

“No.”

Faraday groaned at the injustice of it all, but Sam interrupted before he could say anything else. 

“Red Harvest. You can see Faraday? Right now? Our Faraday?”

The Comanche nodded at Sam while Joshua cooed out loud about being ‘ _their Faraday_ ’. Ever the realist, Sam Chisolm pressed on. 

“I don’t understand. How? Since when?”

Red Harvest looked down and away, like he might be nervous about admitting this part to the group as a whole. 

“He has been with us since the beginning. Sometimes he disappears for a few hours or days, but then he returns.”

Faraday frantically swished his hand towards the younger man and Red rolled his eyes heavenward. 

“He doesn’t disappear on purpose. If he closes his eyes, he loses time.”

“NO!”

Vasquez’s outburst had been angry and unsteady. He jumped out of his saddle and stalked toward Red Harvest with a finger pointed at him menacingly. When he reached the young Comanche’s side, Joshua could see the beginnings of tears in his eyes. 

“NO! You take all this back. You do not joke of this. This is cruel. I will never forgive you.”

Faraday slid off the back of Wild Jack and moved to stand beside Vasquez. Without taking his eyes off the Mexican outlaw, he whispered to Red Harvest. The younger man didn’t respond at first, only passed his gaze between them for a few seconds… then his eyes firmly landed on Vasquez. 

“Faraday says… that Joaquin is a very pretty name.”

Of all the reactions that Joshua expected… Vasquez dropping to his knees in shock was not one of them. But he did so. His voice was wavering and painfully soft when he responded. 

“How… how did you…?”

He never completed his question so Joshua dropped down to kneel beside him. Red watched them both for a few moments before he motioned with his hand to the space where Joshua was. 

“I know because he told me. Though I do not know who is this Joaquin. Faraday is here… he kneels right beside you… there.”

Everyone in their party turned to stare at him, but Faraday was waiting for only one person. Ever so slowly… Vasquez swiveled his head to face directly towards Joshua. 

“Red… tell him I’m sorry he had to find my body like that.”

When his words were repeated Vasquez sucked in a quick breath. 

“And tell him that keeping that damn card is morbid as hell… but it’s kinda sweet, too.”

This time Red choked a little on the words and Goodnight broke into a nervous peel of laughter. Faraday began to speak, slowly and clearly, and Red Harvest repeated his words for the rest of the group. 

“I woke up standing over my body. Couldn’t touch anything or speak to anyone. I didn’t see any other spirits like me. Followed my body back to the church and watched the service. Was mighty nice. ‘Course I coulda done without almost being left behind. No offense to the fine people of Rose Creek, but I did not want to spend the rest of my eternity hanging out with some boring homesteaders. Can you imagine?”

Vas laughed softly, but it was a painful, awful sort of thing, and so Joshua ignored it and continued his story. 

“Somehow I was able to ride my Wild Jack, so that’s how we caught up with you. He can see me just fine. So… I dunno… I’ve just been following along.”

Chisolm had slid out of the saddle at this point and come to stand between Faraday and Red Harvest. His gaze was solidly on the empty space he probably thought Joshua was in… although he was off by about a foot. 

“What happened tonight? What happened in town?”

Faraday nodded and glanced down at his thigh… which now that he noticed… the gray was a might larger. _Dammit_. 

“Real ghosts. Crazy, scary ones. The dead townsfolk. They’re all without color and you can see right through them. It’s like they’re angry, too. One by one they kept comin’ after me. Reaching to grab me, and whenever they did it hurt like the blazes.”

Red interrupted him and spoke on his own for a moment. 

“I think they recognize he is different. Wherever they touched on Faraday… he has turned gray, just like them. I think… I think they wanted what he still has.”

Chisolm finally turned to look at Red. 

“And what is that?”

The young Comanche moved his gaze to meet Faraday’s own. 

“His soul.”

********************************************************************************************************

Joshua Faraday was pouting. Because Red Harvest was a mean and horrible creature. 

“Come oooooooon… ask Chisolm if I can ride up with him. Wild Jack’ll behave. Maybe.”

His words were met with stony silence. The group was currently making their way toward the town of Bodie, Sam in the lead, as usual. Faraday was bringing up the rear of the procession with Vasquez, Wild Jack’s reins tied to the outlaw’s saddle same as before. Except this time, instead of being morose and sad, Vasquez just kept glancing over towards Joshua, blushing, and returning to focus on the trail before them. He wasn’t speaking. _At all_. And Red Harvest was way up front with Chisolm… so Faraday was forced to holler up the line to communicate. It only took about an hour before Red tired of playing translator and moved nearly out of hearing distance. 

“Red! Come on! This is so incredibly awkward!” 

More silence.

Faraday groaned and tried to content himself with sweeping his gaze around the land surrounding them. _It just wasn’t fair. Everyone was finally aware that he was still hanging around, and his only source of communication was a grumpy little shit that rarely said more than 10 words at a time._ He slumped in his saddle dejectedly and gave in to the silence for the next couple minutes. He caught himself right before he was about to close his eyes for a nap. Didn’t want to risk losing any more time. 

“Being dead is so boring.”

At that moment, something far off to his left… _glinted…_ in the sunlight. Faraday popped his head up and squinted his eyes to try and figure out what he’d seen. After a few seconds, he saw it again… there was an oddly bobbing ball of blue and green shimmering light right on the crest of the distant hill. 

“What the hell? Red, I wanna see‒”

He glanced forward, and realized that the younger man had apparently ridden off to do some scouting. 

“Aw, dammit.”

Faraday turned back to the ball of light and found it glowing even brighter than before. For some odd reason, he just knew that he needed to go check the damn thing out. 

“Dammit. Shit.”

Wild Jack was secured too well to Vasquez’s saddle, so Joshua resorted to spinning sideways and hopping completely off his horse. Jack swivelled his head back to watch him, but continued to walk alongside Vas’ white. Joshua waved a dismissive hand at his horse. 

“Yeah, yeah. Keep going. Just listen for me to whistle for ya, ya demon.”

The stallion snorted as Faraday began to jog toward the strange light in the distance. He glanced over his shoulder several times, keeping an eye on the procession of his fellows as they slowly moved further away from him. When he finally reached the bottom of the hill in question, he wasn’t quite sure exactly what he was looking at. Climbing the slope very slowly, the greenish blue light was so glaring he almost had to shield his eyes, but when he crested the hill… it suddenly died down. Before him was the vague outline of an archway… totally made of shimmering light. 

“What… _the hell?_ ”

Faraday stepped closer to peer through the arch of light. It seemed at first to be the continuation of the land he’d been walking on, nothing out of place… but then he realized… the massive barren tree he could see through the arch didn’t exist when he took a step to either side of it. 

He walked a complete circle around the damn thing. Absolutely no giant, spindly tree anywhere to be found, but when he turned to look back through the arch… there it was again. This time accompanied by a dark huddled mass sitting upon one of its uppermost branches. When the shape moved, Joshua could make out the great wingspan of the biggest owl he had ever seen in his life. Its head swivelled slowly around until the bright yellow eyes were boring directly into Joshua’s own… and for some reason all he could think about at that moment was Goodnight Robicheaux. 

“No. Nope. Uh-uh. I do not like this at all.”

With that, Faraday spun on his heels and made to hightail it back to the others as quick as he could go… but there was a massive, familiar coyote standing in his direct path only ten feet before him. 

“JESUS WEPT!”

Faraday froze. 

The coyote flicked an ear, seemingly unimpressed with what he saw before him, and then tilted its head to peer around his body at the arch of light and the owl. Joshua glanced over his shoulder, and damned if the owl, and the tree, didn’t seem much _closer_ and _larger_ inside the flickering arch than before. The owl flared out its wings wide as they could go, its gaze boring into the coyote’s. 

Faraday’s attention flitted between the two as he whispered _‘what the hell’_ again under this breath. And then… the owl opened its mouth and released a screeching wail that shook the very earth beneath Joshua’s feet. It was followed immediately after by the same brain-splitting, pulsing, painful sound that he had first experienced in Rose Creek after his death. The intensity of the sound and the vibrations of the ground beneath him grew and grew until Joshua slammed his hands over his ears and started screaming. 

A long, mournful howl slowly rose in pitch over the pain, and Faraday focused upon the coyote, now standing right along his side. Unwilling to remove his hands from fully protecting his ears, Faraday dropped to his knees before the animal. The beast leaned forward to touch its nose softly against Joshua’s forehead. Something inside him tugged, right behind his belly… and the noise suddenly stopped. In relief, he collapsed to his side in the dirt. 

“FARADAY!? FARADAY!??”

With a groan, Joshua opened his eyes to find Red Harvest dashing toward him with a terrified look on his face. _Well, as terrified as he’d ever seen the younger man look, anyway._ Red slid to a stop on his knees right beside him, hands hovering over Faraday, knowing he wouldn’t actually be able to physically touch. Joshua released the tension in his body and rolled backwards to sprawl out on the ground. 

“What’s going on? What’s happening?”

Vasquez’s frantic voice was accompanied by the sound of his muted footsteps as he ran up to stand behind Red Harvest. Joshua whined in pain while his brain seemed to finally stop throbbing inside his skull. Belatedly he realized that all the gray spots from the ghosts’ touch were also radiating pain, and he had to fight very hard not to squeeze his eyes closed. He didn’t want to take a single chance that something like what just occurred might happen again. 

“Joshua? Joshua!”

Vas’ voice was getting frantic, and Faraday figured Red most have told him that Joshua wasn’t responding. He gasped roughly and turned his head to stare straight into the young Comanche’s eyes. 

“Jesus, Red… Jesus.”

Red Harvest scooted closer on his knees, hands still hovering like he desperately wanted to help Joshua up. It was a lovely gesture coming from the stoic young man. 

“Where did you go? What happened?”

Faraday groaned and attempted to push himself up to a seated position, but every little gray bit of him flared in pain, so he ended up sucking in a breath and flopping back down. 

“There was a light… a strange light… I had to go check it out. Needed to see what it was.”

Red finally managed to shush Vasquez’s frantic questions. 

“And the light? It hurt you?”

Joshua shook his head weakly. 

“No. No. The damned owl. The… the fucking owl.”

“What owl?”

Scuffling footsteps approached and then Goody was dropping to his knees behind Red Harvest. He placed one hand on Red’s shoulder, but it was clear that he was trying to look toward Faraday. 

“Joshua, what owl did you see?”

Faraday grunted and tentatively reached his hands up toward his ears, checking to see if they were burst and bleeding. The noise had been so painful he was genuinely surprised that his brain itself wasn’t leaking out. 

“Large. Very large. And dark. Opened its mouth and screamed. G-God-awful sound. Like a bullet through my skull.”

Red relayed his words to Goody and the Cajun started to curse. He turned to shoot a look towards Billy that Faraday couldn’t interpret before speaking once again. 

“You stay away from that damned owl, Joshua, you hear me? You go nowhere near that owl.”

His voice was so forceful and serious that it brought Faraday up short for a moment. 

“I… I don’t think I have much of a choice. That was the first time I’ve seen the blasted owl, but I’ve heard that damn noise a couple times before. Why? What is it, Robicheaux?”

Goodnight spit into the dirt and stood slowly, his hands were clenched tight enough to show the whites of his knuckles. 

“It’s Death. It’s the goddamn Angel of Death, Joshua. You see it, you run boy, hear me?”

Faraday was finally able to push himself up to a leaning position. 

“If the owl is Death, what the hell is the coyote?”

Red Harvest’s eyes went wide and he fell back to the ground on his ass. 

“You… you have seen a coyote?” 

The younger man’s tone of voice made Faraday raise his eyebrows in surprise, it was so full of awe… so he answered as seriously as he was able.

“Yeah. Big fella… but his eyes ain’t the eyes of some dumb animal. Intelligent. I’ve seen him several times… and each time he’s helped me. He’s the one that brought me here just now. Got me away from the owl. What is it, Red? It’s something different, right? I know it’s not just a damn coyote.”

It was at that point that Faraday realized the rest of the group had all huddled around Red Harvest and appeared to be hanging on every word he said. The young man muttered something in his own language that had Chisolm’s eyes widen a fraction. Red stared off into the distance for a few moments, before returning his gaze to Joshua. 

“No. It is not a normal coyote. Coyote is a spirit… he is a brother to the Comanche. He can dance the line between life and death with ease. He is a trickster and a gambler, reckless and impulsive… it is not a surprise he has become taken with you.”

Faraday released a shocked laugh, but Red Harvest ignored him and continued to speak. 

“Coyote would also listen to the word of the land. To the Great Spirit itself.”

The younger man shifted his gaze to the gray patch on Joshua’s thigh. It was the largest he had. Red’s face shifted into a mask of concentration for a few moments before he stood. Lifting his face toward the sky he closed his eyes and spoke some soft words in his native tongue. To Joshua’s unfamiliar ear it had the cadence of a benediction or a prayer. Then Red dropped his gaze back to Joshua and reached one hand down toward him. 

“Faraday, take my hand.”

Joshua snorted up at the younger man. 

“Red, you know I can’t‒”

“Do not think about it. Do not pause. Take. My. Hand.”

Rolling his eyes, Joshua swung one hand towards Red in aggravation, fully expecting it to pass right through him… only to be shocked stupid when it smacked right into the younger man’s palm and Red gripped it tight. There was a collective gasp from the men surrounding them, and Horne started praying something quietly under his breath. Red Harvest tugged at his arm, and Faraday pulled himself to his feet with the aid of the young Comanche’s grip. He didn’t let go. And he didn’t loosen his hold. 

“I’ll be damned. Red… how?”

“I know what has happened to you now. I understand.”

He pulled Faraday closer to him with the tight grip he held on his hand, and Joshua kept his gaze locked with the younger man’s. In his peripheral he could see the rest of their group inching closer, obviously hanging on every word. 

“I have already told you that your sacrifice has been rewarded. Now I know… Coyote must have pulled you away from Death before he could cross you over. Now Death is angry… he wants you back… but the Great Spirit has asked Coyote to keep you safe.”

Red’s other hand came up to run lightly along the length of Faraday’s forearm, specifically the area turned gray by the ghosts. The sension was feather light… but it was there… and it made goose pimples break out all over Joshua’s skin. 

“He has a part of you now, Faraday. The spots where the dead touched… it will only grow until it consumes you completely. I am sorry.”

Joshua glanced down at the nearly transparent bit of his arm that Red was touching and grimaced. 

“Well… I suppose it would have happened eventually, right kid? Ain’t no way I coulda stayed wandering around like this for eternity. Lucky enough to get this extra bit of time.”

Red Harvest nodded slowly, then turned to look at Vasquez, who was only a couple feet from them. The outlaw raised his eyebrows at the younger man, clearly questioning, but Red merely reached over with his free hand to grasp Vas’ wrist. Slowly, slowly… he pulled it towards his and Joshua’s clasped hands… pushed the palm along the back of his own, until he twisted them just so… and Vasquez’s hand was sliding in to replace Red Harvest’s. 

Faraday sucked in a breath that was echoed by Vasquez. Red pulled his own hand away… and then… and then he was holding Vasquez’s hand. _Holy Jesus._ The Mexican outlaw’s fingers spasmed once and then gripped hard enough to almost make Faraday lose feeling in his own. 

“Madre de Dios. Joshua?” [20]

Faraday laughed suddenly… a bubble of joy erupted from his belly up to his throat and straight out of his mouth. Vasquez startled and then whipped his head toward Red Harvest. 

“Did he just laugh? I… I heard a laugh.”

Red nodded his head once and Vasquez closed his eyes. 

“¿Me he vuelto loco?” [21]

Scoffing loudly, Faraday wiggled their clasped hands back and forth… _which probably looked absolutely hysterical to the folks that couldn’t see him… but whatever._

“If that means crazy, tell him he ain’t crazy, Red.”

Vasquez’s face scrunched down in concentration. 

“I almost… I think I heard something.”

Red Harvest sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. 

“He said you are not crazy.”

The hysterical giggling that erupted out of Vasquez was the most ridiculous thing Faraday had heard in years, and he realized at that instant… that he absolutely loved it. _Wasn’t that something?_ If he loved the sound of the man’s laughter… would it then follow… that he would eventually love the man himself? That was something to ponder, for damn sure. He brought up his other hand and softly passed it over the back of Vasquez’s. The other man’s eyes widened and damned if it didn’t look like there were tears gathering in his eyes. Faraday could feel the smile on his own face leaning toward soft and besotted.

“Hey, sweetheart.”

There was a huff of disgust from Red, but when Vasquez turned his way, the younger man just shook his head. 

“I am not repeating that.”

One of Vas’ eyebrows ticked upward in obvious confusion, but he didn’t say anything else. Instead he turned back to Faraday and lifted his own free hand to place over Joshua’s. Slowly his hand ran along the back of Faraday’s… then up past his wrist and over his forearm. Joshua hissed slightly when it grazed the gray spot on his arm, but Vasquez wasn’t stilling. His hand moved up his elbow… onto his shoulder… to grip the back of Faraday’s neck. 

Somewhere behind them Goodnight made a noise of disbelief. It couldn’t be easy for the mind to accept… watching a live man run his hands so obviously over a dead one. Then Vasquez was pulling, and Faraday went with the motion… until his forehead was knocking against Vas’ own. The damn Mexican closed his eyes and took a shuddering breath. 

“Guero… you are so stupid… idiota… running right to a gatling gun. What were you thinking?”

Faraday moved his free hand up to grasp the back of Vas’ neck, a mirror to how the other man was holding on to him. 

“Well, hell, Vas… I was thinking that I already had a hole in my belly that was gonna kill me… and that if someone didn’t stop that damn devil’s machine _everyone_ was gonna die.”

Red Harvest relayed his words and Vasquez growled under this breath. 

“Still stupid. I won’t forgive you.” 

Faraday chuckled and knocked his forehead against Vasquez’s softly. 

“Well, hell, darlin’… I do unforgivable things all the time. It’s part of my charm.”

Vas’ gaze drifted to Red Harvest for translation, and the young Comanche actually rolled his eyes in a fit of pique before he relayed Joshua’s words verbatim. Silence ruled their immediate area for several seconds until Chisolm released a soft _‘huh’_ and the remainder of the group laughed softly in response. Joshua wasn’t one hundred percent sure if they were laughing at him… or Red, but he didn’t rightly care at the moment. Finally, Sam cleared his throat gently before stepping forward to stand at Vasquez’s side. 

“So we find ourselves in a quandary. Should we continue on to Bodie? Or try and find a way to help Faraday?”

Vas burst out with a determined _‘Joshua’_ at the exact same time that Faraday said _‘Bodie’_. Chisolm turned to Red for translation, and the younger man’s arms tightened over his chest before he spoke. 

“Faraday says Bodie.”

Vasquez started to violently shake his head in denial, but Joshua quickly grabbed the outlaw’s cheek with his free hand and halted the movement. 

“Red, tell them we go on to Bodie. Ain’t nothin’ can be done about my situation… but we gotta make sure those bandits don’t slaughter another town.”

Sam nodded in agreement to his relayed words, but Vasquez growled and pulled away from Joshua, but not far enough to let go of the tight grip he had on their joined hands. 

“No. Joshua is priority. We need to…”

His words trailed off into a telling silence that made Joshua sigh softly. 

“Vas… there is no ‘need to’... I’m dead, sweetheart. Nothin’ to do about that. But before that damn owl comes to collect me… I’d like to accomplish a couple more impossible tasks with my friends. What’d Ms. Cullen call us? The Magnificent Seven? Has a hell of a ring to it, don’t you think?”

Red Harvest didn’t even skip over the ‘sweetheart’ this time as he repeated Joshua’s words, and the effect was immediate. Vasquez flushed a pretty pink all the way to his ears, and the rest of the group shifted their gazes elsewhere in obvious discomfort. 

“Red… tell Sam. We go on to Bodie. I’ll stick around to help as long as I’m able.”

Chisolm stared silently in Joshua’s direction for several moments after Red finished translating, before he dipped his head respectfully and spun to walk towards his large black horse. 

“You lot heard Faraday. We’ve got a long ride before us, best we get moving again. I’d like to at least get to Rabbit Creek before sundown. Mr. Faraday if you’re of a mind to let your crazy horse run free and find us another good spot to bed down for the night, you are most welcome. Oh, and if you need to stop or come under attack again, you let us know. Do not go wandering off on your own.”

Feeling properly chastised, Joshua made a face at Sam’s back. Red Harvest snorted, _very unattractively Joshua would like everyone to know_ , but when Chisolm turned toward the young Comanche, he only nodded. 

“He understands.”

Joshua grinned at the younger man and winked. Red’s lips pursed in the tiniest of smiles before he spun on his heel and gracefully jumped onto the bare back of his painted horse. When Faraday turned back to Vasquez, the outlaw was staring intently at their joined hands. With all their compatriots mounting their steeds around them, he and Vas really needed to be doing the same… but it was obvious that the Mexican was reluctant to release their connection. Slowly and carefully, Faraday leaned forward to brush a soft kiss along the roughened knuckles of the… of _Joaquin’s_ hand. 

Vasquez jumped at the touch, eyes wide and mouth open slightly with a dumbstruck look on his face. Joshua grinned and then licked a stripe across the back of Vas’ hand. The outlaw screeched and jerked away in reaction, releasing his hold. 

“Joshua! Eso es asqueroso!” [22]

Faraday cackled and stepped backward. He’d successfully managed to distract Vasquez enough to keep their separation short and sudden… but it did hurt to lose that connection. Especially knowing that he may never be able to regain it. He wasn’t sure what Red Harvest had done earlier, but Faraday was fairly positive it was a one time thing. Not willing to test it quite yet, he twirled and swaggered over to where Wild Jack was patiently waiting, still tethered up to Vasquez’s white mare. 

In only a few minutes, the band of men were once again riding in a long, silent line toward the town of Bodie. Vasquez had untied Wild Jack, so the stallion _(with Faraday astride)_ was trotting in tandem with the group, but off to the side on his own. Each of the six would occasionally glance over in their direction, but seemed content to leave them be. Joshua smiled as he watched his group of fellows, a wave of fondness hitting him smack in the gut. 

He glanced down at the widening patch of gray on his thigh and grimaced. There was a constant thrum of pain in all of his _‘dead’_ spots. He ran his fingers along the edges of the area and sparks of agony followed in their wake. He sucked in a hissed breath, then immediately glanced around to make sure that Red hadn’t heard him. He didn’t want the group, especially Vas, worrying any more than they probably already were. So he would deal with the pain on his own. No reason for them to know about it. Wasn’t anything they could do but fret.

The remainder of the evening dragged on in subdued silence. Only small whispered conversations that weren’t any longer than a handful of words. There was an ominous cloud gathering above the group that Faraday didn’t like the look of, and it seemed between the potential bad weather and the new knowledge of Joshua’s eventual fate… no one felt up to chatting. When they finally bedded down for the night, in another spot found by Faraday and Wild Jack ( _because they were awesome like that_ ) the heavy silence continued. 

Joshua groaned about it as he followed Red around the perimeter of the camp. 

“This is morose as hell, Red. Why’s everyone actin’ like somebody’s dyin’?”

The younger man glared at him from the corner of his eye. His obviously intended response of ‘ _someone is, you dumb white man_ ’ was completely unnecessary in Joshua’s opinion. So he huffed in frustration and flung his arms around in a silent ‘ _well obviously_ ’ response. 

“I’m ALREADY dead! Nothing has changed!”

Red hummed softly under his breath.

“It has. You were lost to them, and then returned… but now soon to be lost again. You should not take for granted the people who care about you.”

Faraday groaned and rubbed his hands violently up and down his face. 

“I just… you gotta understand, kid, it just don’t make any sense to me… that anyone would even give two shits if I lived or died.”

The Comanche paused and turned to meet Joshua’s gaze full on.

“Your family?”

Faraday grimaced. 

“Don’t think they rightly cared, even when they were alive.”

Red tilted his head slightly. 

“Friends? Lovers?”

Now THAT made Joshua outright laugh. 

“Red, I know we haven’t known each other for very long… but you have to be aware enough of my personality by now… what makes you think I have any friends? Or a lover that was more than a quick tumble in the hay?”

The younger man squinted his eyes as he studied Joshua in silence for several seconds before finally speaking. 

“Yes. You are right. I can see that.”

Joshua glared at him, but couldn’t really argue against his own point. But whatever. So he started walking the perimeter again, not waiting for Red Harvest. He knew the younger man would catch up quickly enough. 

“No one has givin’ a rat’s ass about me for the majority of my existence, Red. Now you’re trying to tell me that not one, not two, but SIX other human beings have a vested interested in my… what? Soul? I mean, my body’s gone… so my soul’s all I have left, I s’ppose?”

There was a sparkle of light in the distance, and Faraday halted his steps. 

“Some more of them faerie lights or whatever just appeared on the crest of that hill.”

Red Harvest followed the direction of Joshua’s indication, but quickly turned back. Obviously he couldn’t see what Faraday could. 

“What do they look like? What do they do?”

Faraday hummed in thought as he crossed his arms over his chest. 

“All sorts of colors. Little balls of light. Dozens of them. They dance along in a line… and disappear back in the ground eventually. Know what they are?”

The younger man was silent for a few moments before answering in a soft voice. Softer even than his usual tone. 

“Spirit lights. I know elders who have seen them. They say they are our ancestors visiting the living to lead us on our path.”

Red Harvest suddenly stiffened, straight-backed and eyes wide. He turned to glance at Joshua and then back towards the hill with the lights. Without warning he shoved at Faraday’s arm, and miraculously… it connected. So much so that Joshua nearly toppled over. 

“Hey!”

“Faraday! Follow the lights!”

Faraday blinked at the Comanche.

“What?”

Red growled and started frantically pushing Faraday along towards the direction he’d previously indicated. 

“Red? What‒”

“What did I just say? The lights are meant to guide. You keep seeing them. Someone is here to guide you! Go! Go!”

With a stumbling step, Faraday finally shifted into a loping jog, heading towards the glowing little orbs that actually, now that he thought about it, appeared to be dancing along the crest of the hill. Like they were… _trying to catch someone’s attention_.

“Huh.”

He could feel Red’s presence at his side as they started up the hill. The fluctuating glow of the lights had painted the grasses in a rainbow of shifting colors. He couldn’t help but whisper a soft exclamation of awe at the sight of it. As they neared them, the orbs stopped dancing about randomly and began to twirl in circles horizontal to the ground, like a small tornado of lights. Red Harvest pushed at him softly and Joshua turned back to his friend with a raised brow. 

Red nodded towards the general area of the lights. 

“Touch them.”

Joshua shrugged his shoulders. 

“I did that before. They just glowed brighter, is all.”

Red shoved at him again. 

“Then stand in them.”

Faraday growled as he was forced forward. 

“Jesus wept, Red. You’re pushier than Chisolm, I swear!”

He was only shoved again in response, so Joshua slowly moved into the middle of the tornado of lights… _spirits… whatever they were._ Like the last time, they all flared brighter as he passed through… and when he came to a stop in the middle of the tiny whirlwind they lit up like the damned sun. Warm, but not hot, a most pleasing sensation traveling along his skin. Until a tension began to grow in his belly… similar to the tugging he felt prior to being pulled to Vasquez’s location. 

“Oh‒” was the only word he was able to get out before he got sucked down, quick as lightning, right into the ground. Red Harvest called out for him, but the Comanche’s voice was quickly muted by the density of the earth as he continued to be pulled down deeper and deeper. 

“What in all the damned hells?”

The spirit lights were still twirling frantically around him, completely unaffected by the solid dirt, just the same as Faraday. They cast a soft glow on the earth, roots, rocks and all manner of things that sped past at an alarming rate… until everything was nearly indistinguishable and Joshua actually entertained the fear that he may very well wind up in the center of the Earth itself. Then, with absolutely no warning whatsoever, he was rocketing feet first out into the air. For the briefest of seconds it felt as though he was floating weightless, before he plummeted down and hit the ground hard. 

“DAMMIT!”

Everything went inky dark around him. The lights had vanished. Faraday coughed hard into the dirt, more from muscle memory of past experiences rather than the actual air being knocked out of his lungs. He quickly struggled to his knees… and found himself staring directly at his own grave marker. JOSHUA FARADAY was carefully carved into the wooden cross before him. A single singed playing card tucked tightly into the join of the two slats of timber. 

“Wh-what the hell?”

Spinning around on his knees, sprawled below him was the recovering town of Rose Creek. Soft glows of candles coming from the windows. People strolling down the main street. Sharp cracks of a hammer hitting nails echoed across the hills. 

“Mr. Faraday?”

Joshua screeched like a bloody barn owl and fell over onto his side in shock. Somehow he had completely missed the slouched form of Teddy Q kneeling near the grave marker. 

“Kid?”

Teddy didn’t react to his voice. Wasn’t even looking in Joshua’s direction. Was, in fact, apparently speaking to the cross planted before him. 

“I’m sorry, Mr. Faraday.”

Well now, that gave Joshua pause. _What on God’s green Earth did Teddy Q need to be apologizing to Faraday for?_ He pulled himself up to sit cross legged on the ground and waited for the younger man to continue his, _probably completely unnecessary_ , confession. 

And so Teddy Q did. 

“I did not mean any of the uncomplimentary words I may have thought about you, or spoken aloud about you to Mrs. Cullen while we were traveling with you folk. When I think of them now… I feel a weighted guilt in my heart. I know that we are taught to never speak ill of the dead… but I think perhaps it would be better served to the world if we did not speak ill of the living either.”

Joshua huffed. 

“Jesus Christ, Teddy.”

The young man bowed his head as he continued to speak. 

“I just wanted to do right by Rose Creek. And help Mrs. Cullen. But I only managed to get shot and sit by watching as you seven accomplished something… amazing. This is my town… and strangers had to save it. Please don’t get me wrong, Mr. Faraday, I am mighty appreciative. I just wish I could have done more and… and I wish you hadn’t needed to lose your life for people who barely even acknowledged you when you were here.”

Teddy suddenly growled and ripped his hat off, only to toss it violently to the ground. 

“Dammit. It just isn’t fair! Why does the world have people like Bogue? How can some person who is built and born the exact same as me have the capacity to be so cruel? So evil? And how can people like you and Mr. Chisolm, Mr. Horne and the rest be made of the same stuff as Bogue? I don’t understand it, Mr. Faraday… and I don’t want to question my faith, but… it seems an awful disparity. Men at the same time being capable of such evil… and such selflessness.”

The kid was silent for several minutes before he sniffled wetly and wiped at his eyes. 

“And I lost your horse, too.”

Faraday flopped back onto the ground with groan. 

“Teddy Q, you are far too young to be this damned dramatic, kid. Right. Okay.”

He pulled himself up to his feet and stepped up behind the younger man kneeling on the ground. Not expecting anything of it, Faraday kicked out carelessly at the younger man’s backside. So color him completely shocked and confused when his boot connected and Teddy Q was hurtled forward to faceplant down in the dirt and grass. Joshua hooted and hollered at the sight, and immediately after, Teddy Q scrambled around to face him, eyes widening until the whites practically glowed in the moonlight.

“MR. FARADAY!?!?!”

The kid was pale as a sheet and staring right at him, so Joshua grinned and planted his hands on his hips. 

“Teddy Q! Why in the world are you weeping and wailing over my grave like some widowed bride?”

Teddy screeched a sound that held no actual words inside it, and then practically vaulted to his feet. 

“Mr. Fara‒What? I don’t‒how? Mr. Faraday?”

Joshua snorted. 

“You keep saying my name, kid, and you’re going to wear it right out. Now, why are you kneeling here in the dark spouting such ridiculous drivel. Huh?”

Teddy glanced down at Rose Creek, then back to the grave behind him, before returning his gaze to Joshua and stealing his spine and shoulders. 

“I’m sor‒”

“I heard you the first time, Teddy!” Faraday interrupted. “And I just said, you ain’t got a reason to apologize to me, kid. I knew what I was about, and I knew the chance of survival in this entire circus was slim to none. And I promise you, any unflattering comments you may have made about my person were probably no worse than the things my own mother said to my face. I take no offense to anything said or done by you during our time together, Teddy Q. So no more weeping at my graveside, if you please.”

Teddy’s gaze bounced around before settling on his own boots. 

“But… what about Wild Jack? I‒”

“Wild Jack is just fine, kid. Don’t worry about that crazy horse. He’s with Vasquez and the others as sure as I’m standing here speaking with you.”

Finally the younger man’s eyes rose to meet Joshua’s own directly. 

“And… and you ARE here… speaking with me… Mr. Faraday?”

Joshua grinned. 

“Sure I am, kid. I’ve been around this whole time. In the town. At the service. Riding with the others. So far this has been one hell of an afterlife.”

Teddy actually smiled at that. 

“I’m… I’m glad that you’re, well… okay? I mean, I’m sorry about you being dead and all.”

Faraday shrugged and spun on his heel to stare down at Rose Creek. 

“Don’t sweat it, kid. Just look down at that town. It’s free and it’s happy… and I had something to do with that. Damn, it’s probably the only good thing I’ve ever really done right in my life. I have no regrets. Well… save one, but that’s personal and none of your business.”

The younger man grinned suddenly. 

“Mr. Vasquez?”

Joshua looked at him agape with shock.

“Are you‒Did everyone notice but me?”

Teddy laughed softly, one hand lifting to scratch the back of his head with a pink flush blooming on his cheeks. 

“Well… to be honest. You drink a lot. I’m sure there’s been plenty of stuff that you missed.”

Joshua waved at hand at him dismissively. 

“No way, kid. Not much gets past me. Vas was just … unexpected.”

The younger man hummed a non-committal sound and stepped up to stand right beside Joshua, the both of them watching the bustling movements of a once again thriving town. 

“You did a damn fine job, Mr. Faraday.”

There was a burning at his eyes that Joshua decided to ignore. It’s not like his body was actually flesh… what would he cry? Ghost tears? _Ridiculous_. 

“Thank you, Teddy. So did you.”

Bright movement in his peripheral vision caught Joshua’s attention. The lights were back. Dancing and twirling happily not ten feet from where they stood. 

“Looks like it’s time for me to go, kid.”

Teddy leaned forward to stare in the same direction as Faraday, but it was obvious he could see nothing in the darkness. 

“Where to?”

Joshua shrugged.

“Who knows. Apparently the ancestors are taking me on a joyride tonight.”

“Why do you suppose they brought you here?”

Faraday turned back to the younger man and winked. 

“Why I do believe that tonight I was here for you, Teddy Q. To give you a literal kick in the pants. You’ve got a temporary peace in a life that will always be full of battles. Don’t go borrowing troubles and waste this time, kid. Enjoy this. You’ve earned it.”

Teddy’s eyes grew suspiciously bright and his lower lip trembled just slightly, but he didn’t have a response for Faraday’s words. So Joshua lifted his hand to pat softly at the younger man’s cheek a couple times, and realized this would likely be the last time he saw the kid. That damned burning sensation came back to his eyes, but he ignored it. 

“Take care of yourself, Teddy. And take care of Rose Creek. She’s a mighty fine lady.”

Teddy smiled and nodded as Joshua turned to step towards the swirling lights. 

“Goodbye, Mr. Faraday, and thank you.”

Joshua only winked at him again as he moved to the center of the lights. Almost immediately he was tugged at behind his navel and found himself being pulled into the ground at speed once more. This time the journey was only a fraction of a second before he was unceremoniously dumped onto hardwood floors. He recovered much quicker this time around and twisted to pull himself up on his knees. 

He was in a house. It was small, but warmly lit and obviously furnished with love and care. Emma Cullen was huddled up in a small ball in the corner by the tiny, potbelly coal stove. It was the tiniest Joshua had ever seen her appear. Tears were tracking slowly down her face while she clutched a worn white shirt to her chest. Her gaze was very obviously lost in the flickering flames, caught in the middle distance. A shift of darkness snagged Faraday’s eye. 

There was a man standing behind her. 

He was colorless and transparent. Just as the ghosts from Round Hill had been. Dark hair, with a face far too pretty for a man, and a giant bloom of blood soaking the chest of his… white shirt. _Oooooooooh_. 

_So this was obviously the much exalted Matthew Cullen, eh?_ Faraday slowly pushed himself to his feet. He was wary to move any closer, since Cullen was obviously a soulless ghost just like the ones that had grabbed at him previously. But if… if Cullen was one of them… how could something soulless stare so forlornly at his own widowed wife? The man looked more pitiful than a kicked dog in the street. He was watching Emma with unwavering attention. Didn’t even spare Joshua a glance. 

Cautiously, Faraday took a couple steps toward the pair. 

“Cullen? Can you hear me?”

Surprisingly it was Mrs. Cullen that gasped in shock and swung to face him. Her eyes went wide as saucers as she scrambled to her feet. 

“M-M-Mr. Faraday?” 

Joshua could feel his eyebrows nearly hit his hairline. The “ancestors” apparently wanted him to get straight down to business on this little pitstop. Matthew Cullen still only had eyes for his wife. The dead man… well… the _OTHER_ dead man didn’t even acknowledge that Joshua had spoken. Faraday grinned at Emma and tipped the brim of his hat at her. 

“Yes ma’am, Mrs. Cullen.”

She silently stared at him for several moments, clutching the white shirt to her chest, before she found her voice once more. 

“I don’t understand, Mr. Faraday. You’ve passed on. We buried you.”

Joshua grinned as he stepped closer. Emma didn’t even flinch. _Ballsy woman._

“Indeed you did, Mrs. Cullen, and it was a very nice ceremony.” 

“You were there?”

“Much to my distress, yes.”

“Distress, Mr. Faraday?”

Joshua scratched idly at the back of his head. 

“I don’t rightly do all the sentimental boo-hoo nonsense. No offense to the other folk, but I would have been happy with a toast and everyone getting drop down drunk in my name. I’m sure there still would have been singing, but the songs would have been highly inappropriate to be repeated in a church.”

He winked at her, and Emma was actually startled into a laugh. It was soft and quick, but still there… so Faraday would take it. She wiped hastily at her face as she took another step closer to him. 

“I’m sure I must be dreaming, but I cannot fathom why you would be visiting me in it, if I were.”

Joshua clutched at his heart dramatically. 

“Why I am wounded to the core, Emma Cullen. Here I sacrificed my life so that others may continue on… and you’re not even happy to see me.”

Emma rolled her shoulders as her gaze unfocused for a moment. 

“It’s only that you’re not the dead man I wished would visit me, Mr. Faraday. My apologies.”

Joshua’s gaze flickered over to Matthew, and he cursed internally when he found the man had finally turned his eyes in Joshua’s direction. He wasn’t moving yet, but his look had gone as vacant as the ghosts that had attacked him before. _Dammit_. 

“No apologies necessary, my dear Mrs. Cullen. I won’t be here for very long… I only stopped by to deliver a quick message.”

Emma took another step closer, and Matthew copied the action. _Damn it all to Hell._

“What message? Is it… is it from my husband?”

Faraday grimaced just a touch, but she caught it, sharp as ever. 

“It’s not, is it? Then who is it from?”

He scratched at his beard for a second, desperately trying to keep his eyes from flicking over toward Matthew. Who was still staring at Faraday like a juicy piece of meat.

“Well, I’ll be damned if I know, Mrs. Cullen. Red Harvest reckons them to be his ancestors guiding me along my path or some such nonsense.”

Emma’s lips quirked into a tiny grin. 

“You’ve spoken to the others? They know you’re… around?”

Joshua gave her a grin and a wink.

“Well, only Red can hear and see me as it were… but I’ve made sure the others still know I’m around. Me and Wild Jack gave them a piece of our mind about being left behind.”

The first genuine smile lit up her face.

“So that’s where he took off to.”

Faraday opened his mouth to reply to her… and then Matthew Cullen took a step forward. Faraday’s immediate reaction would have been to skitter sideways and get as far away from the dead man as possible… but he was too aware of Emma standing directly before him in such an obviously fragile state. He wasn’t sure what would happen to her state of mind if Joshua screamed obscenities at her beloved, murdered, dead husband. So he took one slow step to the right side of Emma, away from Matthew and kept his eyes focused on hers. 

“Yes, ma’am… me and ole’ Jack have been having a grand time reminding those reprobates that I may be of a deceased nature… but I am not to be ignored.”

Emma’s smile dropped off her face. 

“It must be wonderful for them to know that you’re still around, Mr. Faraday.”

 _Well shit. Way to say the absolutely wrong thing, Joshua._ Matthew Cullen took another step forward with a hungry glaze to his eyes. _Well… this was gonna hurt._ Faraday stepped right up to Emma and placed his hands carefully on her shoulders. He could just barely feel the solid warmth of them, and when her gaze lifted to meet his… her red-rimmed eyes were shining with unshed tears. 

“Now, Mrs. Cullen… you know that Matthew is always with you. You feel it deep down in your bones, don’t you?”

She nodded and a few tears were spilled over at the movement. In his peripheral, Joshua could see Matthew raise a hand towards him. 

“And he always will be. Because you will always remember and love him… but you don’t want him to be like me, Mrs. Cullen… you want him to be free. At peace. Don’t ya?”

As Emma Cullen nodded her head in response to his question, Matthew Cullen’s hand landed on Joshua’s forearm… and lit it on absolute FIRE. Faraday sucked in a pained breath… but fought to all damned Hell not to react in any other way. He refused to traumatize Emma Cullen any more that he likely had already done. With teeth grit tight in devastating pain, he gave her a smile that was a little wobbly around the edges. 

“Then that’s what you gotta do, Ms. Emma… let him go. You need to let him go. Bein’ like me… it’s not… it’s not something good people should go through. It’s lonely and painful‒”

Matthew’s hand gripped tighter and Joshua was completely unable to hold in a gasp. He stumbled toward Emma just slightly. 

“Mr. Faraday!?”

She sounded alarmed, so he tried to settle himself… but the burning pain was moving progressively up his arm and into his shoulder. Emma gasped and he glanced down to his arm. The grayness was travelling at a steady pace upward… he was losing his color. Finally, he pushed away from the Cullen’s and wrenched his arm out of Matthew’s hold. 

“MR. FARADAY?”

Joshua wobbled away from them a couple paces. Both Cullens moved to follow him. 

“I don’t mean to scare you, Emma… I’m sorry if that’s what I’m doin’... I just wanted to tell you that you’re gonna be fine… and Matthew… he’s… he’s gonna be fine, too. If you let him move along. Don’t make him stay here… don’t leave him stuck like this.”

“Stuck like what, Mr. Faraday? What do you‒”

Emma Cullen was, and will forever be, one observant woman… and Joshua could see the exact moment that she understood what was going on. 

“He’s here, isn’t he? He’s a spirit… but not… not like you are.”

In his distraction, he had inadvertently allowed Matthew to move closer. He wasn’t able to react in time before Matthew’s hand landed on his shoulder. This time, Joshua wasn’t prepared for it. He cried out in pain and buckled sideways. Emma gasped and reached for him, although her fingers only slid through him like water. 

“Mr. Faraday!? Is it… is Matthew hurting you? Why is he hurting you?”

Joshua shook his head frantically and scrambled away from the deceased Mr. Cullen.

“It’s not his fault. He’s not like me, like you said… it’s only a shadow of him, Emma, a shade… it’s not your husband… but something is holdin’ him here. He’s followin’ you around… like he’s tethered. You gotta set him free. I think that’s what the ancestors wanted me to tell you. I think that’s why I’m here.”

Matthew was still shuffling slowly towards him, so Faraday backed up a couple steps away from the pair, closer to the fire in the little stove. Emma was spinning in circles, as if she was trying to catch sight of her husband from the corner of her eye. 

“I don’t know what to do, Mr. Faraday. Do I just tell him to leave? Tell him to go?”

Faraday shrugged his shoulders, gripping the newly grayed one tight to fight off the pain. 

“I dunno.”

Emma cried out to her husband, begged him to stop, begged him to move on to Heaven. But Matthew continued to stalk toward Joshua. He backed up so far, that he realized he was actually standing in the stove at this point… not that he could feel any heat from the fire. He glanced down to his feet, and a flash of white caught his gaze. Matthew’s shirt was lying on the floor where it had been dropped at some point. A garish red stain was now visible and Faraday gaped at it. The shirt Matthew Cullen died in. The shirt he was murdered before her very eyes in. Soaked in his blood. Coveted now by his grieving wife. That was the tether. She couldn’t bear to let go of the shirt… and that connected Matthew to her. He was bound by her need to remain attached to that final piece of him. 

“Emma! The shirt! You gotta burn the shirt!”

She spun to gape at him just as Matthew reached Faraday and tried to grab his shoulder once more. Faraday jumped sideways to avoid him, but Matthew was already swinging his arm to close the gap between them. His fingertips just brushed the side of Joshua’s face… and that was a fresh new Hell of agony. Faraday screeched out in pain and fell to the floor. Emma had echoed him with a desperate cry of frustration as she snagged the shirt up and tossed it immediately into the roaring little fire of the stove. 

Above Faraday, Matthew Cullen froze. He turned to his wife and the glazed expression melted away from his face. Once again he was staring at Emma with the eyes of a lost, besotted pup. The dead man’s lips ticked up in a soft smile… and he started to fade away into nothing. 

“Tell my wife that I love her, please.”

And then Matthew Cullen was gone. 

Faraday dropped flat on the floor and took several gasping breaths. He didn’t need them, he knew… but it still seemed to help him adjust to the pain. After a moment of silence, Emma joined him on the floor, sitting close by his side and staring at him with a worried expression. 

“Is… is he gone, Mr. Faraday?”

Joshua nodded and groaned. He didn’t have the energy to sit up just yet. 

“He’s gone. He came back to himself at the last minute… said to tell you that he loves you, then disappeared. I’m sorry, Emma.”

Mrs. Cullen shook her head at him and slowly smiled as she wiped the tears off of her freckled cheeks. 

“No. You were right. He needed to be at peace, and I was holding on to him. I already feel… lighter? If that makes sense? Thank you so much, Mr. Faraday.”

The smile slipped away, and she lifted her hand to trace along the gray places on his arm. 

“What did he do? How could it hurt you?”

Joshua sighed deeply once, and then slowly pulled himself to a seated position. He reached up to touch at his face, high along his cheekbone where Cullen’s fingers had brushed, and a little spark of fire announced the definite presence of a new gray spot. 

“I’m different, like I said. They’re like shadows, the ones like Matthew… and I’m still me. Red thinks they’re trying to take what I have… because they know I’m different. But don’t you worry about me though, Mrs. Cullen… I will be just fine. You concentrate on getting Rose Creek back into the home you came here for. It’s a good town. It deserves it’s second chance… and so do you.”

She blessed him with another small smile, and followed him up as he slowly made his way to his feet, arms out as if she could support him if he fell. 

“Our second chance is thanks to you and the others, Mr. Faraday.”

He waved her off. 

“The whole town fought to survive, Mrs. Cullen. You all deserve this peace you’ve won for yourselves. We helped, but we were only the spark… the townsfolk were the embers. The win was yours, too. Don’t give us all the credit.”

Emma laughed softly. 

“I never thought I’d hear you be humble, Mr. Faraday.”

Joshua grinned at her. 

“I am a man of deep depths, Emma Cullen‒”

There was a dancing of light near the door of the small farmhouse. 

“‒but it looks like it’s time for me to head on.” 

She nodded and followed along as he stumbled over towards his friends the dancing light tornado. 

“You sure you’ll be okay, Mr. Faraday?”

He turned back to her, and the genuine concern on her face made him reward her with a sincere smile. The pain of the half-dozen gray spots all over his body was a radiating burn, but he only tipped his hat to her. 

“I’ll be just fine, Ms. Emma… after all… I’m already dead… what’s worse than that?”

She must have sensed that he was hiding something from her, because the response to his words was a solemn smile that did nothing to mask the sadness in her eyes. Joshua backed up into the dancing lights and waved at her. 

“Take care of yourself, Mrs. Cullen… and Rose Creek. Oh, and Teddy Q… that kid’s got himself all tore up with nonsense. Might need a strong hand to whip him into shape.”

Emma rolled her eyes at him, but lifted her hand to wave nonetheless.

“Goodbye, Mr. Faraday.”

Joshua winked at her… and then was gone. 

When he hit the ground again, he was slightly more prepared and actually managed to sort of land on his feet. _Well… kinda. One foot, at least. And two hands and part of his face_ … _but look these damn lights were throwing him upways and sideways and diagonalways for shit’s sake._ There was no way to predict from which angle the ground would appear. _He was doing his best, dammit._

Wherever he had found himself was dark as midnight. There was no moon in the sky above, and only the faintest glow from starlight painting the open desert around him in a pale blue wash. There were dark shadows on the horizon that hinted at mountains and much further afield he could make out the flickering orange glow of an open campfire. 

“Well, alrighty then. Guess that’s where I’m headin’.”

Faraday did one more full spin on his heel to double check that there was nothing else around, but the campfire was definitely the only source of interest in the vast nothingness that surrounded him. He gave a small skip-step as he got moving, a steady pace, but not necessarily a rush. As he got closer to the fire, moving shapes began to form and become distinguishable in the lighted area around the flames. Horses first… nearly a dozen of them sequestered to the side and flicking their tails at the night bugs. Then men, sprawled out over the ground, seated on their saddles, leaning on their packs, stirring some small pot over the heat. 

The mummering bubble of their voices finally reached him and he slowed his steps. He couldn’t make out what they were saying as yet, but they were loud and raucous and something about them caused an uneasy clench in his belly. As he neared, Faraday could immediately tell that this group may be travelling companions, but they were most definitely not friendly with each other. The words that bounced around the campsite were rude and mocking and shockingly demeaning. One of the older men, with a distressingly large mustache, kept throwing rocks at a younger kid who was attempting to cook. 

There was a ginger bear of a man with a lilting Irish accent that threatened to castrate the lot of them, and a reedy vaquero whose eyes quite frankly made Faraday’s hands clench for want of Ethel and Maria. There were a dozen of them altogether, to match the horses, and not a single one looked like a decent fellow. 

“Bogan! When we reachin’ Bodie, huh? Duggan’s gettin’ twitchy again, and if he fingers his damn trigger in my direction one more time he’s gonna have another hole in his ass to shit from.”

“You keep yammerin’ like a windbag, Webb and I’ll poke a pretty little hole in that skinny neck o’ yours to shut ya up.”

“Watch out, Webb! We all know ‘zactly what Duggan likes-ta POKE inta pretty little holes!”

The entire group broke into uproarious laughter… except for the dirty, rat-faced bastard that must apparently be Duggan. He was turning more purple than a beet and sneered at one of the others across the fire. Faraday groaned and rubbed his hands over his face. 

“Well. Aren’t they a buncha’ charming yacks? I assume that my presence here means these are the fine gentlemen that we have been lookin’ for?”

A bright yellow spirit light shot up from the ground and spun in a circle beside Faraday’s head as if it was answering in the affirmative. Faraday lifted his gaze to the heavens to try and locate some distinguishable stars to roughly determine where they might be. A deep, booming voice made him nearly jump a foot in the air. 

“All of you shut yer damn mouths. We’re stayin’ another two days out here before we go into Bodie. I want Bass to get back from scoutin’ before we risk gettin’ too close.”

“Aw, come on, Bogan! This ain’t no big nut to crack. Not gonna be enough lawmen in the whole damned territory to stop US. Let’s go. I’m losing my mind out here doing fuck all.”

“You’ll be losing yer pecker if you ask me that one… more… damned… time. Two days. We wait.”

Joshua’s eyebrows had risen at the threat, but the chuckle that escaped him wasn’t so much due to good humor. There were a lot of names floating around that he recognized… and not a single one of them was a good thing. 

“Well... Shit.”

He turned toward the little light that continued to dance around beside him, and noticed that the rest of the group were swirling about a few paces behind him. 

“Got it… important information gathered… time to move on?”

The single light bounced away from him toward the larger group, and Joshua followed at a slower pace. His mind whirled just as fast as his little glowing buddies by this point. A dozen men, and not a loser in the lot… that he could see, at least. This was no easy task they had found themselves in, his group of six… and despite the victory from Rose Creek still fresh in their veins… Faraday was suddenly not sure if they should move forward with this undertaking. He had been pushing for it… but the odds of another of his companions joining him in the afterlife seemed to have doubled.

He jumped into the lights and relaxed into the pull and spin this time around. When his ancestor amigos popped him out again, he was able to land mostly steady on his feet. Good thing, too, as he ended up just about in Red Harvest’s face. 

The younger man jumped back in surprise, kicking up dust with his feet. His eyes were wide and he nodded silently at Joshua, which probably meant _‘thank God you have returned, I am so happy to see you that I find myself unable to express the appropriate words for my feelings’_ … or some such thing, Faraday’s pretty sure. 

“Howdy, Red. Your ancestors sure pack a heck of a punch.”

Red tilted his head and eyed Faraday skeptically.

“You were only gone for a few seconds.”

Joshua laughed and pulled the hat off his head to scrub at his hair.

“Nope… I’ve been all over this fine evening. I visited Teddy Q and Mrs. Cullen in Rose Creek and then‒”

The Comanche’s hands shot forward to grab Joshua’s face. Joshua froze, until he felt the fingers of Red’s right hand gently tracing along his cheekbone where the gray touch from Matthew Cullen sparked with a painful burn. He ended up flinching against his will… and damned if the Indian bastard doesn’t catch it. _Eagle-eyed little shit._

“What hurt you?”

Faraday pulled himself away from Red’s grip and took a step backwards. 

“That would be Matthew Cullen… who was hovering over his widow like a damned vulture. He didn’t even notice me at first… but eventually he came at me… just like those folks in Round Hill did.”

Red’s arms dropped back to his sides. 

“What did the ancestors show you?”

Faraday spun on his heel and began the trek back to their own campsite in the middle of nowhere. He was more assured of a warmer welcome at this fire, however. With much better company to be had. Red fell into step beside him.

“Well, Teddy was being ridiculous and Mrs. Cullen was wallowing in her broken heart… but more important than any of that… I found the bandits. The group we’re after. They’re camping pretty far outside Bodie, but planning to head into town in two days time.”

“How many?”

Faraday grimaced. 

“A dozen. And several names that I recognized. Not in a good way, mind.”

He turned to share a look with Red, and without a word they picked up the pace to trot faster to the others waiting at the campsite. As they neared, Faraday could make out Goody and Billy huddled together, speaking privately while Goody stirred a bubbling pot of beans. Chisolm was meticulously cleaning his pistol. Horne was reading and praying silently over his beat up bible. Vasquez was nowhere to be seen. Before Joshua could ask his whereabouts, Chisolm perked up at Red Harvest’s return to the group. The Marshal stood quickly and holstered his gun. 

“You’ve been gone quite a while. Is Faraday with you?”

Red nodded and tilted his head toward Joshua. 

“He is here. He has seen the bandits.”

That definitely got everyone’s attention. Horne even stopped praying. 

“And how has he managed to accomplish that?”

Red Harvest came to a stop right before Chisolm and planted his hands on his hips. He looked close enough to a stern Irish mother that Faraday chuckled. He almost missed Red’s first words with his mirth. 

“I will tell you, but you cannot ask too many questions.”

That apparently intrigued Billy enough to speak up. 

“Why? Is it a secret?”

Red narrowed his eyes at the other man. 

“No. I just do not feel like explaining.”

Goody scoffed with humor and Billy shrugged his shoulders. Red turned back to Sam. 

“Faraday went on a spiritual journey with the ancestors.”

Goodnight nearly choked on the swallow of coffee he’d just taken, and Billy had to pat him on the back a few times. Although, it wasn’t really a _pat_ , as each strike nearly toppled the man forward into the campfire. When Billy finally stopped, Goody gave him the meanest glare Joshua had ever seen him direct to his … well … _whatever_ Billy was to him. Chisolm had ignored the entire exchange, of course, and was grilling Red Harvest for more answers. 

Faraday dutifully reported what he had seen, but as the younger man repeated them to the gathered group, Faraday’s gaze just kept sweeping the area trying to catch sight of his cantankerous Mexican outlaw. A shadow shifted over by the tree where the horses were tied. Joshua grinned and started walking. He ignored Red Harvest calling out to him. Apparently Sam Chisolm wasn’t done with him yet, but as the man couldn’t even see him, Faraday figured he held all the cards in their current relationship. The voices of the others drifted off the further he moved toward the tree. They should have enough information to plan out the next move without Faraday’s input. 

When he reached the massive oak that was currently housing the horses it took him a moment to find Vasquez leaning up against the trunk, nearly lost in the shadows. He was puffing on a cigar and twirling something around in his fingers. When Joshua drew closer, he could make out the familiar shape of a playing card and groaned. Vasquez froze as if he could hear the noise. 

“Guero?”

Joshua smiled and stepped up close to the other man. He traced a finger straight down Vas’ nose and laughed at the reaction it garnered. Vasquez startled violently backwards and then growled under his breath as he quickly tucked the playing card into his vest pocket. 

“Sí, that is you. Cabrón. Always need to make trouble.”

He couldn’t help but laugh softly again as he stepped up close to Vasquez. If he had been solid, Joshua would have crowded him right back up against the tree and let the weight of his body push Vas’ back into the bark. As it was, in his not-so-solid state, he could only loom invisibly. It must have worked a little bit, or maybe Vasquez was getting used to sensing his presence, because the outlaw tamped out the cigar, put it away, and leaned fully back into the tree. 

“I think you might be standing a little too close, guero.”

Faraday put his hands at either side of Vas’ head, against the tree, and it was miraculously solid to his touch. 

“Nah, pretty sure I’m not close enough…. Joaquin.”

Vas blinked his eyes rapidly for a couple seconds. 

“I think… I almost heard you that time… Joshua.”

Faraday’s only response was to humm under his breath in acknowledgement as he continued to lean into Vasquez’s space and simply observe the man’s face. The multitude of expressions that flit across the Mexican’s features were fascinating to watch from up so close. Vas’ eyes were a lot more expressive than Joshua had ever given him credit for. Every little thought he was having at that moment shone out clearly for Joshua to see. 

He was happy. 

He was nervous.

He was scared. 

He was sad. 

He was worried. 

It was all there in flickering changes of light, and Faraday was close enough to catch each one as it came and went. He allowed himself to study the shape of the man’s cheekbones. The arch of his eyebrows. The slight dimples in his cheeks that were mostly obscured by the dark scruff covering half of his face. 

“I dare say, Joaquin Vasquez, you may actually be a pretty man beneath all that dirt and fur.”

Vasquez closed his eyes and sighed.

“I don’t know what you just said, but instinct tells me I should kick you for it.”

Faraday didn’t respond, only stared down the long length of the other man’s neck for a moment… and then stepped back several paces. Vasquez immediately opened his eyes and straightened. 

“Joshua?”

He took another step away from the outlaw and shook his head to try and clear it a little. 

“Sorry. I’m sorry, Vasquez. I shouldn’t be doin’ all this to you. I don’t know what I’m thinkin’. I’m dead. I’m going to remain dead. It’s not like anything can come of‒...” 

With a loud curse, Faraday spun on his heel to stalk away, only to meet Red Harvest coming up to him. The young warrior had a strange, melancholic expression, and flicked his gaze over to Vasquez once before he returned his focus to Joshua. So, obviously, he had caught some of what had just happened. Red looked like he wanted to say something, but Faraday shook his head and placed a finger to his lips. 

“He is there, isn’t he? I am not losing my mind?”

Both he and Red Harvest turned to watch Vasquez amble over from the tree, cigar already lit and back in his mouth. Red nodded once in response. 

“Yes. He is here. And he brought us news of the bandits. Chisolm wants us all at the camp to strategize.”

Vas pursed his lips around the cigar. 

“Por supuesto.” [23]

Joshua watched the two of them walk toward the fire side by side. Red turned back to look at him once, but Faraday only shooed him off with a wave of his hand and a promise that he would be there in a few minutes. When they were almost to the others, he returned to the tree and angled himself behind its bulk so that he couldn’t be seen by Red Harvest. He cautiously leaned back against the trunk, expecting to fall through, but was pleased when he didn’t. He allowed himself to slide down into a crouch and observed the horses milling about for a moment. 

A dull ache in his thigh pulled his attention and he glanced down to the gray spot there. It was most definitely larger than the last time he’d checked. Faraday sighed. 

“Dammit.”

Wild Jack whickered in response to his voice, but Faraday only slammed his head back against the tree trunk behind him. He was so caught up in Vasquez’s attention that he completely failed to accept that nothing could actually come of it. Vas obviously had feelings for him, and Joshua definitely had… _something…_ for the outlaw in return. 

But he was _dead_. 

He was currently, at this very moment, a half-exploded corpse in a cheap casket rotting away in the ground all the way back in Rose Creek. He should in no way be flirting and acknowledging Vasquez’s feelings right now. Faraday ran his fingers along the edge of the gray spot on his thigh and sucked in a breath at the burn of it. He was going to disappear. Sooner rather than later. And it wasn’t fair to Vas to keep prodding open the wound. It needed to heal. He needed to allow Vasquez to let him go. 

“Dammit.”

********************************************************************************************************

They crept into Bodie late in the night. For such a large and bustling town it was eerily still and quiet. If Faraday still had honest-to-God skin it would probably be crawling. He was perched on the roof of the grocer’s with Red Harvest doing some scouting, while the others were hiding at the edge of town. After a near twenty minutes of not a goddamn thing happening, Red turned to him and pointed down to the main street running through town. 

“I think you are the most qualified for this scout.”

Joshua opened his mouth to protest… but then… well hell, it’s not like anyone in town could actually see him, so why the hell not? 

“Well alrighty.”

He jumped up to the ledge of the roof, turned back to wink at Red, and then simply stepped off into the open air. He could hear the kid suck in a surprised breath behind him, and Faraday laughed to himself as he descended to the street at about half the speed a living body would. He touched down without disturbing a single bit of dust, and swiveled his head around to blow a kiss at Red’s annoyed face. 

The younger man rolled his eyes at him, and then ducked down to remain hidden from sight. Faraday began to hum a song softly as he slowly strolled down the street into the town proper. It took him a full minute to realize he was actually humming the song that had been sung at his funeral… and came to an abrupt halt. 

“Well, that was damned morbid. None of that now, Joshua, you handsome devil.”

The song was still bouncing around in his head, though, he could almost hear an echo of the young woman’s voice singing it in his ear. For some reason it made a shiver pass down his spine, and his gaze caught on the gray spot marking his forearm. A heavy weight dropped in his stomach and Joshua acknowledged it for exactly what it was. Foreboding. A flickering sense of the end rushing up to meet him. Pushing it away from his thoughts into the ‘doesn’t matter’ part of his mind, Faraday turned the corner towards the town center… and froze in his tracks.

“Holy Mary Mother of Jesus.”

It was a massacre. There were bodies of lawmen and citizens strewn all about. The Sheriff’s office was a roaring mass of flames and crumbling timber. And the group of bandits he had seen in the desert were all sitting on the porch of the building across the street laughing uproariously, drinking heavily, and groping at some working girls that most definitely did not want to be there. That wasn’t what scared him most, however. No… that would be the absolutely massive swarm of transparent, gray people milling about the bandits like flies. 

“Shit. Shit. Shit.”

Faraday ducked into an alley to shroud himself in shadows. Not that he was sure that would actually work when it came to the ghosts, but it was a damn sight better than strolling right up into the mess of them like an idiot. He only counted ten bandits amongst the men celebrating… so two of their fellows were either still about somewhere, or dead in the street. A flicker of motion caught his eye, and he watched as a man’s face peeked out from a window on the top floor of a building a couple down from the gang of killers. So the townspeople were likely all still holed up in their homes and too scared to react. 

“So what the hell are they doin’ just sittin’ here drinkin’?”

He glanced up at the building he was leaning against. Higher view point would probably be better. Red Harvest knew what the hell he was doing. He scrambled up the side of the building with the aid of some boxes and a conveniently placed windowsill or two. When he reached the opposite side it was ridiculously easy to launch himself off of the ledge and onto the roof of the next building. Best thing about being dead… he didn’t make a single sound or tremble in his dash. After a couple more jumps, he was on the roof of the building where the assholes sat, so he leaned over the edge and tried to listen in to their squabbling. 

“Stop squirming ya damn whore.”

“Did you hear that fat Deputy squeal when I shot him? Like a fat sow to slaughter!”

“Gimme that damned bottle.”

“How long til’ Bogan is done with the damned safe?”

“Please! Please let me go! Please!”

Faraday’s head perked up at the word ‘safe’. 

“They’re hittin’ the goddamn bank.”

He scrambled back to his feet and spun in a circle. Bodie was the largest town in the area… he hadn’t a single clue where the bank would be, but there wasn’t time to wait. He had to get back to the others. Maybe Chisolm or Goodnight had some knowledge on the town’s layout. He decided not to risk the street for a bit, and hopped along from building to building until a soft whistle brought him to a halt. Red Harvest was on the roof across the street from him, Sam Chisolm barely visible in the shadows of the alley alongside. 

“Red! They’ve burned down the Sheriff’s office! All the lawmen I could see were dead in the street. Ten of them are sittin’ by the fire drinkin’ and two are missing… but they said something about workin’ on a safe. I think they’re here for the bank.”

Red Harvest nodded, and gracefully slid down the building to land by Chisolm. Probably whispering Faraday’s words to the Marshall. Joshua stepped up onto the ledge and jumped off again to land in the street. A quick glance around assured him there were no spirits in the area, so he trotted over to the alley that hid his friends. When he reached it, he realized that _everyone_ was actually hidden in the shadows. Billy was already twirling his knives with deft fingers. Vasquez puffing at his damned pre-shootout cigar. Goody was sipping from his flask, and Horne whispered prayers under his breath with his eyes closed. Joshua grinned. What a motley crew his fellows were. 

The heavy pit was back in Faraday’s belly. A quick glance down at his thigh showed the gray, transparent spot was covering him now from knee to hip. The burning pain of it had become so constant, he hadn’t even paid attention to the spread.A sudden nearby presence startled him, but it was only Red Harvest stepping up close and peering steadily into his eyes. Faraday blinked. 

“What? Red?”

The young Comanche’s gaze flicked down to Joshua’s gray thigh, then back up to the area of his face that Matthew Cullen had burned away. Red’s eyes narrowed, but the emotion in them was strictly concern. Joshua responded with a smile that he sincerely hoped read as carefree, but it felt a little watery at the edges, so Red likely saw right through it. 

“Chisolm knows where the bank is. He said to leave that to him.”

Faraday startled a little when he realized that he, Red Harvest, and Vasquez were the only ones left in the alley. He had completely missed the rest of the group slipping away. He nodded at the kid to continue. 

“Goody and Billy went north. They will come at them from above. Horne says he will come at them through the burning building itself‒”

“Because he’s insane,” Faraday interrupted… at the exact same time Vasquez muttered, “Esta loco.” Which made Joshua smile. Red Harvest, of course, ignored the both of them. 

“‒we are to head straight toward them. I will go high. Vasquez low.”

Faraday’s mouth exploded without any input from his brain. 

“THE HELL HE WILL! Goin’ straight at them is fuckin’ suicide!” 

Red Harvest must have twitched at his outburst, because Vasquez was suddenly stepping up beside them to whisper.

“Qué? What did he say? I heard him yell.”

Red continued to stare at Joshua for a few more seconds before turning to Vasquez. 

“He does not want you to go that way. He says it is suicide.”

Vasquez snarled ( _it somehow didn’t detract from his handsomeness_ ) and spat out his cigar to the dirt. He stepped up close to them, and the anger and anguish on his face was palpable. 

“Hijo de puta! YOU do not get to tell me about suicide missions, or running into danger!” [24]

Faraday flinched, but didn’t drop his gaze away from Vasquez. 

“Well, sure but… this time I won’t be there to have your back, Vas!”

Red Harvest relayed his words, and Vasquez immediately softened. 

“Sí, lo sé, cariño. I know. That is a truth I will carry for the rest of my life. But it cannot stop me from doing what needs to be done.” [25]

With those words the outlaw slipped into the shadows and vanished into the back of the alley. He would probably keep to the hidden edge of town until he was close enough to move into firing range. Joshua knew Vasquez was skilled at keeping out of sight, but that didn’t assuage the knot of worry that was making his chest hurt something awful. 

“Faraday.”

He turned back to Red Harvest. The Comanche was poised to climb back up to the roof of the building, but there was an indecision in his gaze that warmed Joshua’s heart. The kid could sense a lot of things, so maybe he could feel the end barrelling towards Joshua as well… or maybe Faraday was just telegraphing his emotions too strongly. He smiled at Red and made a shooing motion with his hands. 

“Get going. You know they’d never survive without you. Don’t worry about me.”

Red shifted, but still held back from getting on his way.

“Joshua?”

 _Wow, okay, that tight burning sensation in his throat was completely unnecessary, thanks._ The kid looked so concerned… _nervous_ about leaving him. Faraday realized that he could never really thank the younger man enough for helping him get through this crazy afterlife. He winked at Red one more time, and then spun on his heel to head back into town. He could hear the Comanche scramble up the building and Faraday convinced himself not to look back. 

This time he strolled straight down the street like he hadn’t a care in the world. When he turned the corner to take in the devastation again, he paused for a moment. Nothing had visibly changed from the last time, but now he knew his friends were slowly making their way closer to these murdering bastards, heading straight into a shoot out where they were outnumbered. It was a familiar situation, to be sure; however, this time he was much more emotionally invested in his travelling companions surviving the fight. And here he was, unable to do anything but watch. 

“Fuck.”

A howl split the air from very close by. Movement in his periphery had Faraday whipping his head to the right. A shape bled out of the shadows of a building. The Coyote. The massive beast was standing not ten paces away from him… with the most beautiful thing Faraday had ever seen held gently in its massive maw. _His gun belt._ With Ethel and Maria practically sparkling in the moonlight. Joshua sucked in a shocked breath as the beast slowly walked toward him. Its intelligent gaze bored into his own. 

_**I’m sorry,**_ it seemed to say. 

_**This is the last thing I can do for you.**_ Faraday was almost positive he could actually hear the words in his head. _**The owl will have you soon. But I will help you protect your friends.**_ It stepped right up to Faraday’s side, much larger than any coyote had the right to be, and lifted its head towards him, gun belt swinging softy in its jaws. Cautiously, he reached down to grab it, afraid his fingers would slip right through, but was relieved and happy when the leather was solid to his touch. 

“Hell yeah.”

With quick and efficient movements, Faraday swung on his belt and buckled up. He shot his hands down to his guns, drew them out and spun them quickly twice before dropping them back into their holsters. He took one step forward, before he glanced back to the Coyote. 

“Thanks for everything. Tell… tell the Great Spirit that I am eternally grateful.”

The Coyote bowed its head at his words, and then trotted off into the darkness. Faraday took one more deep breath, that he really didn’t need, to steady his nerves and then continued his stroll down the street. Not much had changed since he’d left the scene. The swarm of gray spirits were still swirling around the bandits like a hurricane. Something told him that most of these people were not only the dead from Bodie… but murdered souls who were tethered to their own damn killers. 

He didn’t slow his pace, just kept walking straight down the street, hatred boiling in his heart for these bastards and the fact that his friends… his _family…_ were about to put their lives on the line just to stop them. As he neared, the gray people began to slow and stop, turning to stare at his approach, but he ignored them. There was a frantic whistling coming from the top of a nearby building that was most likely Red Harvest, but he ignored that, too. 

“Hey! Assholes!!!”

To his own disbelief, the group actually turned toward him, bottles paused on the way to their lips. The big bastard, Duggan, shot up to his feet and pulled his gun to point in Faraday’s direction. 

“Who the hell are you?”

Joshua could feel the manic grin slowly split is face. He could feel Red Harvest’s and Vasquez’s gaze on his back. Billy and Goodnight taking the high ground nearby. Horne stepping through the smoldering building to his right. Sam dispatching the two men at the bank quickly and silently. He could stretch out his senses and feel them all. The scared townsfolk hiding in their homes. The mindless spirits milling about, moving closer to him. Drawn to his soul. 

He could feel the eyes of the Owl burning into the center of him. 

It didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that these bastards were ended. And that his family survived until morning. Faraday’s hands moved to hover over Ethel and Maria, and the bandits before him all tensed. 

“I’m the Angel of Death, Duggan. And I’ve come to collect.”

Duggan hollered in rage and fired a shot. It passed right through Faraday to imbed itself into the wooden planks of the building behind him. The bandit’s eyes widened in shock, but Faraday only laughed. 

“My turn!”

He drew his guns in an instant and shot two holes right into Duggan’s skull. The big bastard dropped… and all hell broke loose. The women ran screaming for safety as all the bandits surged to their feet and came straight for him. A dozen more bullets went painlessly through him to hit the buildings behind. One of the assholes screamed in irrational fear and just kept firing repeatedly. Faraday popped him off pretty easily. Then there was a crack of a rifle and another man dropped. When an arrow flew out from above and sank into the small, weasily vaquero’s neck… the rest of the group finally realized they were under siege, and split off in different directions. 

Faraday laughed, and spun to shout at Red that this would be easy pickens now… but his first syllable rocketed into a cry of pain as a dozen gray, ghostly hands latched onto him. The pounding tremor of feet was the only warning he had before some bandit tried to swing at his head with the butt of a rifle. Faraday grimaced, but managed to spin Ethel backwards to shoot the asshole in the face. An echoed shot rang out and impacted the same bastard in the chest. Then Vasquez was running up to him with fear and joy at war in his eyes. 

“Guero! Guero! Puedo verte! I can see you!”

Joshua smiled at him, but stumbled sideways in agony. He managed to knock the grip of the spirits off of him, and they were immediately replaced by a pair of warm, calloused hands that he would desperately have loved to get to know more intimately in his life. Vasquez laughed in obviously startled shock at the touch, and there were tears actually gathered in his eyes.

“Joshua.”

A cold burst of air brushed his back just prior to more excruciating fire exploding across his nerves. He cried out again and fell forward, right into Vasquez’s arms. 

“JOSHUA!”

Another crack of a rifle rang out, and a bullet whizzed right by Vasquez’s ear. The outlaw cursed and spun them around to take off running toward the cover of the nearest building. Faraday was panting and stumbled as Vas managed to drag him through a door of a darkened room. He tumbled to the ground, but Vasquez was right with him, pulled him up to lean against the wall and frantically grabbed at Joshua’s face. 

“Cariño! What is… you are losing more color!”

Faraday wanted to close his eyes and rest, but who knew what would happen if he did. Instead he lifted a trembling hand up to trace lightly along Vasquez’s cheekbone. 

“I’m fine, sweetheart.”

Vas shook his head quickly in denial, but Joshua didn’t have time for this conversation. Gray shapes were stumbling into the building from all sides. He groaned and shifted to grasp both of the Mexican’s hands with his own. 

“Help me up, Joaquin. I can’t stay here.”

Vasquez swiveled his head to look toward the door, but of course, he couldn’t see anything. A dozen ghosts were slowly creeping closer, so Faraday grunted and tried to get going under his own steam. Which was flagging. Vas startled and quickly turned back to help him stand. The firefight was still raging outside. He needed to get back out there. 

“I can’t keep still, sweetheart, I need to keep moving. I’m gonna head back out there.”

“No! Joshua‒”

Faraday stepped right up into Vasquez’s space and slammed their lips together. He couldn’t take his time. He couldn’t savor it. There were ghosts at the door. _Literally_. When he pulled away, Vas’ eyes were glazed and wide. Faraday grinned and proceeded to bop the Mexican’s nose affectionately with a finger. 

“Stay in the shadows, darlin’... their bullets ain’t gonna hurt me.”

Before Vasquez could gather his wits back about him, Joshua spun around and darted through the side of the building. He jumped through the wall and directly into the next… where there was a bandit hiding by the door and firing blindly out into the street. 

“Huh. Lucky me.”

The dirt and ash covered man startled violently and made an attempt to turn and face Faraday, but he was dead before they even locked gazes. Joshua clicked his tongue as he spun Ethel in his hand a few times, then he dropped her back into his holster. 

“Unlucky you.”

He strode out the front door of the building into a very muted level of chaos. The dead were still swarming in swirls of great numbers, across the road he could make out a couple of the bandits still living, but hidden in the shadows of a storefront. Goody and Billy weren’t firing anymore, so they obviously didn’t have a line of sight on anyone at the moment. Big Jack Horne was hidden somewhere, but still hollering for the bastards to repent for their sins before they inevitably died. He couldn’t see Red Harvest … but then… you usually didn’t see Red Harvest unless he wanted you to. 

And Sam Chisolm was strolling up the cross-street, just as sweet as you please. He was coming up behind the building that housed the, hopefully, last of the wannabe bank robbers. Chisolm was practically whistling as he walked, so Faraday figured they just about had this all wrapped up. He grinned as he propped his hands on his hips and shouted into the nearly silent air around him. 

“Well, I do believe that I have just spotted Mr. Sam Chisolm! Duly sworn warrant officer of the circuit court in Wichita, Kansas! Also a licensed peace officer in the Indian Territories, Arkansas, Nebraska, and seven other states!”

Chisolm had paused in step for just a brief second when his gaze had swung over to take in Faraday, hollering like the fool he was in the middle of town. That was the only reaction he gave, which pleased Joshua something awful. A swirl of gray in his periphery caught his eye, though, and he ended up shuffling back several steps to avoid the half dozen spirits that were reaching for him. 

“Mr. Chisolm, there are three cowardly idiots still a’hidin’ in this building right before me! I myself have personally dispatched four of the dirty dozen we have come to eradicate.”

From somewhere nearby, up on a roof, Goodnight’s voice called out.

“There were fourteen in total you bedamned braggart! You neglected to include, in your splendiferous tale of spiritual journeys the two goddamned scouts that were away from the camp!”

Faraday paused in his movements for a second. 

“Well… shit. I do believe I did! My sincerest apologies, Mr. Robicheaux!”

Billy’s voice piped up. 

“Also, we got three of them!”

Another spirit swiped at him, so Faraday ducked sideways and tried to put a little distance between himself and the mob. He found himself standing practically on the porch of the building that housed the remaining bandits. Three ash-strewn, angry faces watched him from the corners of the shot out windows. 

“Oh! Hello boys! May I come in? Or would you prefer to come out here and die like _actual_ men? Instead of the boot-licking murdering cowards that you are?”

The big Irish bastard hollered in a rage and tumbled through the doorway toward him, firing his gun repeatedly right through Faraday’s eyes. The other two must have been of the same mind, because they fell into step behind, and came out shooting. Joshua only laughed in response and strolled backwards toward the crossroads. He only needed to get them a couple more paces out into open line of sight for his friends that surrounded them. When the large Irishman fired two more futile shots straight through Faraday, he actually screamed in rage like a toddler and stomped his foot. 

“WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU?”

Five shots rang out simultaneously from all around them, and an arrow struck the Irishman dead center in the throat. Faraday winked at the beast of a man as he fell. 

“I… am the world’s greatest lover.”

Silence reigned for a moment in the town, but before the echoes of those final shots even finished, Sam Chisolm was calling out to the group for everyone to check in. There were healthy and relieved responses all around. Not any of his fellows had been injured in the shootout. Faraday felt the vice that had been squeezing his chest loosen. He couldn’t begin to thank the Coyote enough for helping him to participate in this firefight. He didn’t want to think about how the outcome might have been different if he hadn’t been able to catch the bandits so by surprise. 

“Faraday?”

Joshua turned, smile on his face, to look at Chisolm… and immediately gasped in shock. He hadn’t realized at the time… he hadn’t noticed… but he had backed up directly into the eye of the hurricane. The swirling swaths of ghosts were all around him, circling, hands out, closing in. 

“SHIT!”

He spun in a circle on his heel… but there was nowhere to go. Everywhere around him there was a wall of gray people closing in. Mangled and bloody. Bloated and skeletal. Dozens and dozens of them, maybe even a hundred or more. 

“Oh… shit shit shit!”

“Faraday?”

“Joshua?”

He swiveled his head to the voices, and there were Sam and Vas walking up slowly to him. Straight through the dead without a care in the world. As he turned he could make out Horne approaching, Red Harvest running up the street, Billy and Goodnight hopping down off the steps of the saloon. All of their colors muted by the gray screen of encroaching transparent people. Joshua could feel his non-existent breath quickening… a bit of panic setting in. He had known of course, that this was an inevitability, but now that it was upon him... _Dammit. Dammit. This was going to be excruciating._

“Joshua? Cariño?”

Faraday turned back to Vasquez and tried to smile, but it was wobbly and uneven… and his voice sounded even worse. 

“H-hey… hey, sweetheart.”

Vasquez was instantly on alert and rushed forward to grab at Joshua’s arms. _Fuck. Fuck he was so happy that he could still touch… at the last_ ‒ _at this last moment._ There was real fear in Vas’ wide eyes as they roamed around Joshua’s face. Most likely seeing the spreading gray that Joshua could feel in fire-blazing detail. 

“Joshua, what’s wrong?”

Faraday forced his spine to straighten and lifted his hands to cup the scruffy cheeks of his favorite outlaw. The wall of gray closed in until it was all he could make out in his periphery, although he could sense the living bodies of his friends step up close, as well. 

“Time to say goodbye, darlin’.”

Vasquez shook his head in denial and tightened his grip on Faraday’s arms. Joshua smiled softly at him, but then lifted his gaze to meet Chisolm’s. 

“No apologies are needed, Sam Chisolm. And you neither caused my death… nor are allowed to call me a good man.”

Sam’s eyes widened just a fraction in surprised recognition, and Faraday winked at him. He turned to blow a kiss at Billy, who snorted but acknowledged him with a tilt of his head. Goodnight’s brow was furrowed in honest worry, so he lifted one hand from Vasquez’s face to tilt his hat respectfully at the Cajun, who returned it in kind. Horne gave him a sincere smile, that Faraday returned, and Red Harvest… well … Red Harvest actually appeared his age for a brief second. Uncertainty and trepidation warring in his eyes. Faraday tipped his hat at the Comanche as well. 

“Thanks, Red. For everything. Don’t know what I woulda’ done without you.”

The younger man nodded, but remained silent. Then he was obscured by the gray ghost of a man with a shotgun blast to the face and Faraday startled. 

“Shit.”

He turned back to Vasquez and pulled the outlaw’s face to his own quickly. Pressed their lips together in only their second kiss. When Faraday pulled back, Vasquez looked well and truly terrified. 

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry you’re gonna have to see this.”

Vasquez shook his head again and muttered softly. The ice cold chill of the nearby dead sent shivers up and down Faraday’s spine. 

“Cariño… what‒”

But Joshua silenced him with another forceful kiss. The last one. He had barely pulled away when a dozen burning hands grabbed at him and pulled. It felt like every nerve ending in his body was alight in fire. Faraday couldn’t stop the scream that tore from his throat. His fellows called his name. His Joaquin cried out for him and tried to hold on, but the dead were too strong for the living. He was ripped away from his friends into the howling inferno of ghosts and pain. There were hands everywhere. Touching every inch of him. It was a frostbite burn that began in his chest and slowly spread out. 

The roaring of his own screams in his ears muffled the frantic shouts of his friends, but he was vaguely aware of them. Trying to grab at him. Trying to help him fight something they could not even see, much less get a firm grasp on. He struggled to get away, but was held solid now by a hundred hands. He screamed and screamed and screamed until his throat would have been bloodied, had he still been living. 

And then the painful, screeching wail of the Owl split the air and everything went still. The hands didn’t let go, but nothing was moving. Joshua was panting in agony but managed to open his eyes… he hadn’t realized they’d been closed. He was kneeling on the ground, and Vasquez was directly before him, tear tracks streaking down his face and hands reaching out, fingers spasming, as if he had tried to grab hold… but wasn’t able to. The accented lilt of his voice was repeating Joshua’s name over and over, but the sound of it was muffled as if he were under water. The Owl wailed once again and the pain of it reverberated inside Faraday’s skull. His entire body was trembling in aftershocks, but managed to slowly turn his head to the left. 

The lighted arch… and the damned tree… loomed large and imposing in the middle of the street. The giant ink-black owl was perched on the largest branch… glowing eyes boring into him. 

“Well… aren’t you an ugly bastard?”

The Owl screeched again, and then the hundred hands were pulling him toward the arch. Faraday cried out in shock, heard it echoed by Vasquez, and struggled to free himself once more. 

“NO! NONONO!!!”

A coyote’s wail sounded from far away, and then solid hands gripped him from behind. Ones that did not burn. An exact dozen of them. Faraday turned his head just enough to make out his six fellows all gripping his arms, his shoulders, his chest, and trying desperately to pull him back … away from the arch. Away from the Owl they couldn’t even see or hear, although Goodnight did appear pale and sweated. Vasquez’s voice abruptly cut through the air and echoed off the buildings around them. 

“NO! No you cannot have him! ¡El es mio! ¡El es nuestro! ¡Vete al diablo!” [26]

Faraday could almost laugh at the absurdity of it all. That six humans were trying to defeat Death itself… but then… these were not six ordinary men. They were remarkable ones. If Emma Cullen was to be believed… magnificent ones. And, Jesus wept, did he love them all for it. A much closer howl pierced the air. As if out of nowhere, the Coyote was standing between them and the arch. Facing Joshua with eyes glowing bluer than the sky. 

**Acknowledge**. 

Behind the Coyote, the Owl spread its wings and screeched in outrage. 

“Ack-acknowledge what?”

Faraday’s voice was a broken and painful croak. The pull toward the arch had not let up one inch, but neither had his friends fighting against it. 

**Acknowledge that you are a bad man. That you deserve this end.**

The pull intensified and they lost nearly five feet of ground, sliding through the dirt and dust as one. Horne growled like an angry grizzly in Faraday’s ear, and Vasquez and Red Harvest shouted their frustrated rage. Goodnight started cursing a blue streak of fancy words, as Billy and Chisolm only grunted in strain. 

**Beg to be spared. Plead that you deserve to be saved.**

Faraday sucked in a surprised breath. 

“W-what?”

The Coyote didn’t speak again, only stared into his eyes with that soul-piercing gaze. Faraday’s mind was spinning like a top at the spirit’s words. _Deserved to be saved? What in God’s name did that mean?_ Joshua Faraday had never been what the Church would consider a good man deserving of redemption. He’d fully expected to burn in Hell for eternity for what he’d done in his life. Sure he’d never killed anyone for fun or sport. Only those that deserved it, or came after him first. It was survival, pure and simple. 

Deserve to be saved? Why him? Why not someone like Matthew Cullen? Good honest folk that didn’t warrant what life had dealt them? Blowing up that damned gatling gun was the only truly good thing he’d done in his life. Deserve to be saved? _What a joke._

“I don’t. I DON’T, dammit!”

The Coyote’s mouth opened, tongue lolling out the side as if it was laughing at him. 

**Humble? You? Now?**

Faraday pulled back his lips and practically snarled at the creature before him. 

“What the hell do you want from me!? Huh?”

He could feel his friends beginning to lose their grip on him. He could hear Vasquez screaming out in desperation and fear. He could see the Owl furiously beat its wings and snap its massive beak in the Coyote’s direction. The Coyote himself took another step toward Faraday, stupid canine grin still on its face. 

**So you deserve to die?**

Someone lost their footing behind him and the whole group of them almost fell over backwards. As it was they slid another five feet toward the arch, kicking up dust and collectively shouting in frustration. The Coyote was directly before them now. 

“What?”

The Coyote motioned with its head toward the arch behind itself in a freakishly human gesture. 

**Death. The end. So long? Farewell? You deserve it?**

Faraday sputtered. 

“I’m… I’m already DEAD!”

It seemed to nod in response to his words. 

**And you deserve it? You’ve been acting like you deserve it. All ready to go? No regrets?**

Without his conscious permission Faraday whipped his head around to look at Vasquez. The outlaw’s face appeared pained with the effort he was expending trying to pull Joshua backwards. There were tear tracks streaming through the dust on his cheeks, and his eyes immediately locked with Faraday’s. Vas’ mouth was spitting out words, but they were muffled to Faraday’s ears. He mostly just heard his name repeated several times. The group slid another foot forward, and Faraday swung his gaze back to the Coyote. His boots were nearly touching the paws of the animal. 

“Yeah… yeah, I got regrets.”

The Coyote tilted its head in acknowledgement. 

**But you deserve to die? Time to go?**

The cacophony of noise around him seemed to swell until his ears were ringing. The Owl’s damnedable screeching. His friends screaming and hollering. The roaring noise of the swirling ghosts that still surrounded and pulled at them. Faraday felt as if his head was laying on train tracks and the locomotive was thundering directly to him at top speed. 

And yet, the Coyote appeared peaceful… and quietly calm. 

**Do you want to die?**

Something like a sob erupted out of Faraday’s throat, eyes suddenly burning and fat tears spilling over to fall down his face. He desperately shook his head in the negative and his voice rang out tortured and thick with emotion. 

“NO! NO, I DON’T WANT TO DIE! OKAY? IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR?”

The Coyote lolled its tongue again in a smile. 

**Yes. Actually. It is.**

With no warning, the animal leapt forward and bit down on Faraday’s wrist, the grip of its jaws like a steel trap. The cries of the Owl abruptly doubled in volume. With a massively powerful flick of its head, the Coyote flung Faraday into the air nearly twenty feet up and damn near eighty feet sideways. He was launched completely over the swarm of ghosts and landed all the way back by the smoldering timbers of the Sheriff’s office. He hit the ground with a grunt and almost immediately there were spirit lights dancing up from the dirt in multitudes like he had not previously seen. They were all around him swirling in colorful circles. 

“What the hell?”

“JOSHUA!!”

Faraday flicked his gaze up and was met with the sight of Vasquez and Red Harvest barrelling toward him at top speed. The others were still picking themselves up from the heap they must have tumbled into when the Coyote ripped him away. He opened his mouth to respond to Vas when an odd sensation drew his eyes back down to the ground beneath him. 

He was sinking down into the earth. 

“SHIT!”

The lights continued to dance around him as he tried to push himself up to his feet. The tugging intensified and he only managed to make it to his knees with monumental effort. As he watched, though, his knees disappeared as well. Only his upper thighs and above were currently visible, with more being pulled down at a steady pace. Red Harvest hit the ground kneeling right before him and immediately grabbed at Faraday’s upper arms to begin pulling. 

“What happened?”

Faraday shook his head in confusion, and then Vasquez was on his other side, arms wrapped around his chest and trying to halt his descent. 

“I don’t know… the Coyote tossed me.”

Red pulled back to meet his gaze. 

“Coyote did this?”

Faraday nodded and then the ground was nearly up to his chest. Vasquez lost the grip on his torso and moved to grasp at his hand, twining their fingers together. When he spoke, the outlaw’s voice was raw and desperate. 

“No no no… mi amor… why are you sinking?” [27]

Joshua shook his head and frantically reached for Red with his free hand. The young Comanche grasped it firmly with both of his own, but he did not pull like Vasquez. 

“Are the lights here, Faraday?”

Joshua’s eyes flicked to the air above him that was glowing with the amount of spirit lights whirling around his head. He nodded… and the ground was up to his armpits. Red squeezed his hand, so Joshua returned his gaze to meet the kid’s. Red had a small smile on his lips and his eyes were warm with emotion. 

“I think this is good.”

Vasquez erupted. 

“HOW IS THIS GOOD?”

Faraday held Red Harvest’s eyes until the kid nodded at him… and then he stopped struggling. 

“NO! NO! JOSHUA!”

The ground was up to his neck, and his arms were only visible past his elbows. He didn’t let up on the grip as he held on to Vas’ and Red’s hands, but the rest of him went lax. Between the two men he could see the rest of his fellows finally reaching them, but they only stood there looking lost and unsure of what action to take. Faraday nodded at Sam Chisolm before he turned his gaze to meet Vasquez’s. The ground was up to his chin.

“S’okay, darlin’.”

Vasquez shook his head once, and then the ground closed over Faraday. The last thing he saw was his outlaw’s face. Both of his hands were still being held tightly, and the spirit lights were nearly blinding him with their intensity in the surrounding darkness of the earth. He could feel the ground above him reach his wrists and Vasquez frantically scrabbling to keep hold of his fingers. It couldn’t last, though, and soon enough he lost contact with the men above him and was completely swallowed up by the earth. He could hear Vasquez’s muffled screaming from above as he sank down about another foot… and then he stopped. 

The lights circled closer and closer until they were running along his skin, every single inch of him felt the tickling warmth of their touch. Faster and faster and faster, until the heat of them began to actually burn. He grunted in shock, but was feeling too tired and heavy to react any more than that. The intensity of the burn ratcheted up until it became excruciatingly painful. He grit his teeth and squeezed his eyes closed, could feel himself trembling at the severity of it all. Finally, a cry of distress split his lips… and everything stopped. The lights were gone. The pain was only a muted ache. The sense of being heavy and weighted had increased tenfold, though. Faraday groaned. 

And immediately after... dirt tumbled into his open mouth. 

He erupted into hacking coughs. There was dirt in his nose, his ears, stinging his eyes, constricting his chest when he tried to pull in air. He tried to shift, to move, to wiggle his fingers… but he was solidly stuck. There was only a small pocket of open space around his face, so he spit the dirt and dust from his mouth and screamed as loud as he could. 

“HELP! HEEEEEEELP!!!”

The earth above his fingers began to tremble and shake. He could vaguely hear a distant scratching sound. 

“HELP! HE‒”

More dirt tumbled into his mouth and he went back to coughing. Then there was something hitting his fingers repeatedly… a hand. It was a hand, more than one, digging at the dirt surrounding his fingertips. And then he could move them, wiggle them in the air… and almost instantly after the sound of scratching doubled… tripled… quadrupled. Then his other hand’s fingers could move. He could feel the shift of air on his skin. The warm drag of other flesh against his own. A sensation that had recently become so foreign to him, he could down right weep at its return.

_They were digging him out. Jesus wept... They were actually digging him out of the dirt._

The digging disturbed the earth around him, and he was back to coughing again. Then they were down to near his elbows, frantic hands everywhere, and they were so close… _they were so damned close_ … and his lungs were burning. With the last push of strength that he could muster Faraday gripped at forearms, uncaring whose they were, and pulled as hard as he could. Someone above must have caught on; they grasped back and tugged. 

  
  


 

Finally… finally his head broke the surface of the earth surrounding him and Faraday sucked in a desperate gasp of air. His eyes flickered open just enough to see his hands gripping at Horne and Billy, but he closed them again right away. 

“Holy Mary mother of Jesus!”

“Joshua!”

“Keep digging! Keep pulling!”

As the dirt loosened around him, Joshua started to push with his feet and legs, trying to help as best he could. The dirt and the light were still stinging his eyes, so he kept them screwed closed, and he couldn’t stop coughing… but he could feel the honest to God air entering his lungs. Could feel every scrape and shift against his skin. Every ache and bruise of his body. 

“Mi amor, breathe… breathe, mi amor… Slowly. Slowly and deeply, por favor.” [28]

It took him a few minutes to realize that his head and shoulders were being cradled by a warm body. There were hands brushing at his face with some kind of cloth. With a final tug by several hands, Faraday could feel his feet being lifted from the hole he had been in and carefully placed on solid ground. 

“Water! Red, go!”

That was Sam’s voice, followed by soft, pounding footsteps darting away from them. 

“Goody, Billy, find some clothes… or a blanket, please?”

 _Clothes? Huh… now that he thought about it… Faraday did feel mighty… naked._ He coughed again and the body holding him made soft shushing sounds above his head. Joshua finally attempted to flutter open his eyes, and this time no dust tried to blind him. Above him, haloed by the moon like a damned angel, Vasquez was smiling down at him… tears glittering in his eyes. 

“Buenas dias, mi amor. I am very happy to see these eyes. Que bonito.” [29]

Faraday tried to huff a laugh, but his throat was still too raw, and it only led him back to coughing. Out of nowhere, Red Harvest was hovering over him with a skein of water. He held it up to Faraday’s trembling lips and Joshua couldn’t help but drink from it greedily. Vasquez had gone back to wiping gently at Joshua’s face with something… looked like the outlaw’s fancy kerchief. Red pulled away, and Joshua took a minute to breathe clearly before he turned toward the younger man. 

“Thanks, Red.”

His voice was still a croak, but it was much easier to speak now. The Comanche nodded his head and gave Faraday an honest-to-God smile before moving out of the way to let Chisolm kneel down beside him. The Marshal placed a careful hand on Faraday’s forehead as if feeling for temperature, but then left it there. 

“Mr. Faraday… I feel it my responsibility to welcome you back to the land of the living… although I have no damned idea how you managed it.”

Joshua licked at his chapped lips. 

“Coyote… grabbed me. Threw me over here. The… the ancestors pulled me down.”

A single brow rose on Sam’s face, and the man smirked. 

“I have no idea what any of that means. How do you feel, son?”

Dimly, Faraday realized that blackness was encroaching his vision at the edges. His body felt like he’d been drug behind a stagecoach from Boston all the way to Sacramento. Everything hurt, which was awesome in principle, but not so great in practice. 

“Well… shit, Sam Chisolm. I do believe I am about to pass out.”

And then he damned well did. 

********************************************************************************************************

The smell of coffee was the first sensation that came back to him, followed directly by the down mattress against his back and a warm blanket covering him up to his neck. All very pleasant things to wake up to; unfortunately they were followed by a bone deep ache in nearly every joint of his body. Faraday groaned. 

“Well, I dare say our very own resurrected martyr is beginning to awaken.”

Joshua couldn’t stop the smirk that stole across his lips at the ridiculous southern twang. 

“Goodnight Robicheaux attendin’ me at my sickbed, I do declare.”

His voice was so beat to hell that Faraday wasn’t sure half of those words were actually distinguashable, but Goody chuckled, so he must have gotten the gist of it. There was a thump of boots hitting the floor and a groan of complaint as the other man stood. 

“Now, cher, don’t go gettin’ ideas in that pretty little head. We have all been takin’ turns on Saint Joshua watch.”

Faraday scoffed and finally opened his eyes. The room was fairly dark, so it must have been late evening. There was a single lantern burning at his bedside bouncing flickering shadows across the walls of the nondescript room he was in. At first it made him tense in fear, memories of the ghosts coming through the walls for him, but it only took a couple seconds to recognize that the shadows were all shaped like the man standing above him. When he met Goody’s gaze, the Cajun smiled at him. 

“It’s good to see you in the flesh again, son. Just wasn’t the same with you gone… too quiet.”

A bubble of genuine affection rose in Joshua’s chest for the older man. 

“I am a treasure to behold, Robicheaux, you are damned lucky to be counted in the number of people blessed with my companionship.”

Goody damn near cackled as he leaned forward to pat Faraday amiably on the chest. 

“Bien sûr, cher. Now if you will please excuse me, if I did not advise your beau immediately of your awakening, I do believe he would burn me with that, frankly overcompensating, cigar of his.”

Joshua grinned and waved the other man off with a hand still trapped beneath the blanket. 

“Go on, git. Go find your own petite, murderous, little darlin’.”

Goody downright bellowed in shocked laughter as he reached the door. 

“Good Lord, Joshua! He would murder you in your sleep if he heard such a comment.”

Faraday only grinned and closed his eyes again with a happy hum of contentment. He listened to the sound of Goodnight strolling away from him down a long hallway, in whatever this building was. Seemed like a fancy-type hotel. Much nicer than their usual fair. He sincerely hoped that meant the townsfolk of Bodie had been treating his fellows warmly after their defeat of the murderous bandits. Wouldn’t be opposed to some nice monetary rewards either. Thundering footsteps echoed in the hall, growing closer, until a wide-eyed Vasquez damn near skidded into the room like a leggy colt. Luckily, Joshua had opened his eyes again just in time to catch the silly display. 

“Calm down, darlin’... I ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

Vasquez huffed at him, and then slow-as-you-please swaggered over to sit on the edge of Faraday’s bed. _As if he hadn’t just been acting a hysteric fool._

“I would have more faith in your words, mi amor, if you hadn’t already died on me once.”

Joshua shrugged. 

“Eh. Turned out okay, didn’t it?”

Vas gaped at him for several seconds. 

“Turned out‒... Joshua, Madre de Dios… you are the most foolish, irresponsible… _no se las palabras_. I think you have taken years off of my life!” [30]

While the other man had been speaking, Faraday had been pulling his arms out from under the blanket and pushing it down to his waist. When Vasquez paused for a breath, he reached out towards the man with his arms like a toddler wanting to be picked up. 

“Hey, hey… come’ere, Joaquin… come snuggle with me.”

Vasquez’s eyes went wide as he sputtered, but Joshua just kept wiggling his fingers. Finally the Mexican sighed and rubbed at his forehead as if Joshua was being a headache. Without another comment, however, Vasquez stood and moved across the room to quietly shut the door. Then he sat on the bedside chair to pull off his boots, gunbelt, and intricately embroidered vest. 

“Only you… _only you_ can get me to behave like such a fool, Joshua.”

Faraday didn’t comment, but didn’t stop smiling and wiggling his fingers until Vasquez was climbing into the narrow bed with him. He situated himself slightly behind, so that Joshua could lean back against him, turned on his side just enough so that he could tuck his face into the curve of Vas’ neck and sigh in absolute satisfaction. He draped an arm across the outlaw’s stomach, the other sneaking around to tuck itself between the headboard and Vas’ back. 

Vasquez was tense and still for several minutes, before he eventually began to relax into the partial embrace. He ended up moving his hand down to play with Faraday’s fingers. Running his own up and down each digit, matching calluses scraping over each other’s. Joshua was content to remain in the silence and just appreciate the reality of this moment after all he had been through… but he could tell that Vasquez was building up words in his throat. 

“Joshua?”

Faraday hummed in response, but kept silent. 

“Do you… is this something that you actually want? Or is it just because of… what has happened? I don’t want this if it’s only because you feel… obligated.”

Now Faraday scoffed and opened his eyes to gaze up at Vasquez. Who was already staring directly at him with a worried furrow in his brow. 

“Okay, first, Vas… have you EVER known me to be swayed into doing something I didn’t want to do?”

The outlaw shook his head, so Faraday continued. 

“And second, I have just been through complete and utter Hell, sweetheart. If I hadn’t wanted this, why on God’s green earth would I have subjected myself to all that? I would not have fought so hard to get back to you… I would’ve just… let myself drift away. Sweet and peaceful-like.”

Now Vasquez snorted and then chuckled softly. 

“Nothing about you is sweet or peaceful, guerito.”

Without missing a beat, Faraday bit softly at the underside of Vasquez’s jaw in retaliation. 

“Lies. I am as sweet and thick as molasses.”

Vasquez raised a single eyebrow. 

“Thick?”

Joshua responded with lewd grin and suggestive waggle of his own eyebrows. The effect was immediate. Vasquez burst into delighted laughter and scooted down to relax further in Faraday’s embrace. 

“That was horrible, cariño. Just awful.”

The delighted flush to his cheeks assured Faraday that it was, in fact, the complete opposite. Then Vasquez was leaning forward, and Faraday was meeting him halfway. He tilted his head just enough that their lips fit together perfectly, Vas’ mustache tickled his upper lip, which was actually delightful. _Much to Joshua’s surprise._ When Vas’ mouth parted and a warm, slick tongue swept across his lower lip, Joshua gasped. _Just a little, mind you. Just a bit._ But it still allowed Vasquez the room to sweep his tongue into Joshua’s mouth and take up temporary residence. 

Faraday groaned and reciprocated the best that he could, but he felt slightly weak against the sudden intensity of Vas’ ardor. Without warning, Vasquez was pushing him onto his back and pressing Joshua into the mattress with his weight. Vas’ hands had migrated, one cradling the back of Joshua’s head and the other resting low on his belly. Faraday’s own had tangled themselves in Vas’ thick curls almost of their own volition. A funny little whine escaped him when Vas pulled back to nip at his lower lip. 

Now he wanted out from under the damn blanket. Faraday kicked at it with frustration, not willing to remove his fingers from where they were wound around soft locks of hair. Vasquez finally took pity on him and leaned back just enough to quickly rip the blanket away and toss it to the end of the bed. All while sucking at the skin of Joshua’s throat. Freedom achieved, he shifted sideways until he could maneuver one leg around the other side of Vas’ hips. Vasquez seemed to cotton on to what he was doing, because he immediately lifted himself to straighten out and settle back down fully on top of Joshua, hips cradled in the clutch of Joshua’s thighs. 

They both made a happy noise at the pressure and weight of the result. Vas dove back at Faraday’s mouth, slick tongue again delving in to parry with Faraday’s own. His hands were now both cradling Joshua’s skull like it was a precious thing, arms tucked up under his back and shoulders. After a few minutes, Faraday started to feel slightly light-headed and had to pull himself away, turned his head slightly to pant against the bearded cheek hovering above him. It took him a moment to notice the soft voice speaking against the side of his head. 

“Shh… shh… mi amor… I have you. I have you. Calma. Cálmese.” [31]

At first Joshua couldn’t understand why Vasquez was speaking in such a way, then he realized that there were tears drifting from the corners of his eyes to drip into the curve of his ears, and short little whimpers accompanied every panted breath out. There were tremors running through his arms and down his spine. Vas pulled back enough to look into Faraday’s eyes and it was like a punch to his solar plexus. 

“Shit. shit. I was dead. I was dead, Vas. J-Jesus wept, I… I was really dead.”

His words were fractured by painful hiccups, and Faraday could feel his eyes going wide, the color draining from his face. Then Vasquez was leaning back down to place soft kisses on his cheeks, his chin, his nose, his forehead. Constant with the soft comforting noises. Voice as smooth as honey, words barely breathed out against Faraday’s skin. 

“But you are not now. You are not any longer. You are here. Estas conmigo. Eres mío.” [32]

Joshua could only manage a wobbly nod in response, breath still stuttering uncomfortably as he tried to calm himself. Vasquez shifted them so they were both lying sideways on the bed, still tangled and twisted up together, both clasped tightly to the other’s body. Vas’ fingers began to card softly through Faraday’s short hair, trace at the shell of his ear, wipe away the moisture of his tears. They moved continuously, touching and sweeping over every inch of Joshua’s face almost reverently. Joshua watched the other man as Vasquez’s eyes tracked the motion of his own fingers. When he took a deep stuttered breath, Vas’ gaze immediately flicked back to meet his own. There was a soft smile on the outlaw’s face that made something in Joshua’s belly clench. 

“Are you feeling better, mi amor?”

Faraday nodded, a tiny little motion, and Vasquez rewarded him with a satisfied hum. 

“You have been through a horrible thing, amor, but it is over now. You are back here with us… and we will not let you go. Just please do not run headfirst into suicide again, por favor?”

Joshua gave him a watery grin. 

“You know I didn’t have a choice, Vas. Someone had to take that damn devil’s gun out, or no one would have walked out of there.”

Vasquez hummed in acquiescence, then cupped Faraday’s cheek with his previously roaming hand, and started to brush his thumb back and forth over Joshua’s bottom lip. 

“Sí, I know this… and I know it was the right decision… but it still ripped my heart out of my chest. I was praying very hard as I rode out to find you. And I knew, I KNEW you could not have survived that blast… but I had such hope… and finding your body…”

His voice drifted off and Faraday could tell that Vasquez was lost in the memory, a thousand miles away from the bed they were resting in. So he pulled his hand away from where it clutched at the outlaw’s back, and brought it up to scratch his fingers through the unkempt beard on the other man’s face. Vas’ focus came back to him and he swatted at Faraday’s tugging fingers, which brought a genuine smile to Joshua’s face. 

“I get it, sweetheart. It was a damned horrible situation. I’m sorry I put you through that. And I’m sorry… I’m sorry I didn’t notice before that you… that you… wanted me?”

Vasquez snorted and grinned. 

“Cariño, you are a very talented gambler and gunfighter, but your ability to notice feelings? And emotions? It is not there.”

Faraday rolled his eyes, but didn’t protest, so Vasquez continued to speak softly between them. 

“I did not expect anything from you, Joshua. I had been on the run, and very much alone, for a very, very long time… and you were the loudest, most annoying, most _alive_ thing I had seen for many years. Rude, but funny. Drunk, but skilled. Filthy, but so pretty. _Muy bonito._ I was so upset by you… and at the same time, so charmed. It was as if I was staring into the sun after a lifetime in darkness, not even caring if my eyes burned away.” [33]

Joshua could feel his heart thump in his chest at those words. His hands surged up to grab Vasquez by the back of the head and he practically jammed their lips together. His kiss was biting and frantic, and Vas was clearly stunned for a moment, but quickly recovered. He kissed back just as desperately, punched out little sounds erupting from deep in this throat that were doing crazy things to Joshua’s unmentionables. When he pulled back, Vasquez looked suitably glazed in the eyes, and Faraday was pretty sure he fared no better. 

“Jesus wept, Vas… you damned romantic bastard. You can’t just… say things like that… I don’t… I can’t…”

His voice drifted off, not even sure what he was trying to express, exactly. Vasquez pulled him forward once more, these kisses soft and chaste, and repeated again and again. Almost as if he just couldn’t stop himself. He kept speaking between each touch of their lips. Mumbled words like ‘it’s true’, ‘they are all true’, and a couple things in Spanish that Faraday didn’t catch. Repetitions of the words ‘mi amor’ which Faraday DID catch, and made him flush across his cheeks. He knew those words, and every time Vasquez had said them to him, something had fluttered low in his belly. The thought of it… he wasn’t sure how to react. Joshua Faraday couldn’t think of a single person in his life that had truly loved him. Maybe his Ma when he was still toddling about, knee-high and tugging on her skirts. But beyond that. Nothing. His was not the type of personality that drew others to him, but rather, drove them away. His voice caught a little as he responded to Vasquez’s words. 

“You’ll get tired of me. I’ll piss you off, or annoy you, and you’ll want to see the back of me.”

Vasquez hummed softly and moved to kissing down his jaw and into the curve of his neck. 

“Guero, you already piss me off and annoy me, and I like the view of your backside very much.”

Faraday couldn’t stop himself from bursting into laughter. Vasquez pulled away from him and smiled beguilingly, obviously very pleased with himself. 

“Okay… okay, Vas. We’ll do it your way for a bit. You and me… and those five ridiculous bastards we’ve somehow fallin’ in with.”

Vasquez grinned and pulled Joshua forward to tuck him into his neck, and dropped a soft kiss into his hair. Faraday took a deep breath and relaxed into the other man’s hold, closed his eyes and breathed in the soap and cigar smell of him. 

“Oh, Joshua… it will take all six of us just to keep a handle on you. We will do it, though, because you are ours. We lost you once. We won’t again.”

He could feel himself begin to drift into sleep as Vasquez started to hum a tune softly, lips still pressed into Faraday’s hair. So Joshua decided to accept this new change to his life, now that he had one again, and was determined not to take it for granted. 

“Okay.”

And then he was asleep. 

 

**THE END**

**Author's Note:**

> Translations and Notes (please forgive any incorrect translations; this is all Google translate and High School Spanish from over 20 years ago. I'm sure there are some mistakes.)
> 
> [1] Por qué hiciste esto, cabrón?  
> Why did you do this, you bastard?
> 
> [2] Que En Paz Descanse  
> Rest in Peace
> 
> [3] Lo siento  
> I am sorry
> 
> [4] Ándale  
> GO!  
> Soy idiota  
> I am an idiot
> 
> [5] Buenas noches, carino  
> Goodnight, sweetheart
> 
> [6] All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me; and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day  
> JOHN 6:39
> 
> [7] The Parting Glass - https://www.tripsavvy.com/the-parting-glass-1542681
> 
> [8]The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death. ISAIAH 57
> 
> [9] All who have died are equal.  
> COMANCHE saying
> 
> [10] Ante el amor y la muerte, el coraje es inútil. Adios, guerito.  
> In the face of love and death, courage is useless. Goodbye, guerito.
> 
> [11] Calmase, mi lindo  
> Calm down, my handsome
> 
> [12] “Esta bien, guero.”  
> "It's okay, guero."
> 
> [13] “Que haces, lindo?”  
> "What are you doing handsome?"
> 
> [14] niño  
> Boy
> 
> [15] ‘So a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.’  
> JOB 14:12
> 
> [16] Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends  
> JOHN 15:13
> 
> [17] Cállate  
> Shut up. Be quiet. Etc. 
> 
> [18] I named him Joaquin after real life outlaw Joaquin Murrieta. Also called The Robin Hood of the West or the Robin Hood of El Dorado,  
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaquin_Murrieta
> 
> [19] “Estoy perdiendo la mente.”  
> "I'm losing my mind."
> 
> [20] Madre de Dios  
> Mother of God
> 
> [21] ¿Me he vuelto loco?  
> I've gone mad? Am I going crazy?
> 
> [22] That is disgusting!  
> eso es asqueroso
> 
> [23] Of course  
> por supuesto
> 
> [24]Hijo de puta!  
> Son of a bitch!
> 
> [25] Sí, lo sé  
> Yes, I know
> 
> [26] ¡El es mio! ¡El es nuestro! ¡Vete al diablo!  
> He is mine! He is ours! Go to hell!
> 
> [27] Mi amor  
> My love
> 
> [28] por favor  
> Please
> 
> [29] Buenas dias, mi amor  
> Good Morning, my love  
> Que bonito  
> How nice; How pretty
> 
> [30] no se las palabras  
> I do not know the words
> 
> [31] Calma. Cálmese  
> Calm. Calm down.
> 
> [32] Estas conmigo. Eres mío.  
> You are with me. You are mine.
> 
> [33] Muy bonito  
> Very pretty


End file.
